Uli' 



JOURNAL 

9 

OF 

^ HE PLAGUE YEAR: 



OBSERVATIONS OR MEMORIALS 

OF THE MOST REJVIARKABLE 

OCCURRENCES, 

AS WELL 

PUBLIC AS PRIVATE, 

WHICH HAPPENED IN 

LONDON . 

DURING THE LAST 

GREAT VISITATION 
IN 1665. 



'llftlTEN BY A CITIZEN WHO CONTINUED ALL THE WHILE IX LONDON. 
NEVER MADE PUBLICK BEFORE. 



LONDON: 

, -MINTED FOR E. NUTT, AT THE ROYAL EXCHANGE ; J, ROBERTS, 
IN WARWICK LANE ; A. DODD, WITHOUT TExMPLE BAR, AND 
\ J. GRAVES, IN ST. JAMES'S STREET, 1722. 



A 

JOURNAL 

OF 

THE PLAGUE YEAR; 

OR, 

MEMORIALS OF THE GREAT PESTILENCE 

IX LONDON, IN 1665. 

BY DANIEL DE FOE. 

ATTENTIVELY REVISED, 

AND 

..UST RATED WITH HISTORICAL NOTES, 

BY 

EDWARD WEDLAKE BRAYLEY, 

f .S.A., M.K.S.L., &c. &c. &c. 



" Witliin the walls, 
The most frequented once, and noisy parts 
Of town, now midnight silence reigns ev'n there ; 
A midnight silence at the noon of day ; 
And grass, untrodden, springs heneath the feet,"— Drtdex. 

LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM TEGG, & Co., 73, CHEAPSIDE. 



MDCCCXLVIII. 



LONDON : 

BR.ADEL'RY AND EVAXS, PRIiVTEKS, WIIITEFRIARS. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



London^ in former ages, has frequently suffered 
from the ravages of Pestilence, and thousands and 
tens of thousands of the inhabitants have been swept 
by its virulence into one common grave. But at no 
period of our annals was the mortality so devastating 
as in the year 1665. It was then, indeed, that man 

withered hke the grass," and that his brief earthly 
existence became a fleeting shadow.'^ Contagion 
was rife in all our streets, and so baleful were its 
effects, that the church-yards were not sufficiently 
capacious to receive the dead. It seemed for a while 
as though the brand of the avenging angel had been 
unloosed in judgment, and that the infected city was 
doomed to become another Golgotha ! 

The Journal of the Plague Year,"' attributed to 
De Foe, was originally pubhshed in the year 1722 ; 
and the question as to its genuineness and accuracy, 
as an account of that calamity, has given rise to much 
discussion. Like most of De Foe's works, it appeared 
without an author's name, but no one who is at all 
acquainted with the general characteristics of his 
writings, can, for a moment, hesitate to agree ^vith 
the voice of common fame, which assigns it to him." 
But the question then arises, as to what degree of 
credit is due to the Journal " or to the circum- 
stances w^hich it records ; since De Foe was scarcely 



VUl 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



two years of age, when the Great Pestilence occurred 
which it affects so minutely to describe. His narra- 
tive, by one writer, has been styled ^^a pure fiction;" 
by another, it is described as being as much a work 
of imagination as his Robinson Crusoe;" a third (the 
author of his Memoirs ") says, it would baffle 
the ingenuity of any one but De Foe to frame a history 
with so many attributes of truth upon the basis of 
fiction;'^ and a fourth, with a somewhat reprehensible 
ignorance, has inchjded the Journal of the Plague 
Year" in a collecti<?n of Novels. 

Now De Foe's work is not a fiction, nor is it hased 
upon fiction ; and great injustice is done to his 
memory so to represent it. Most of the circum- 
stances which it records, can be traced to different 
publications to which the writer had access, and which 
are still accessible ; and it is extremely probable that 
a part of his information was actually derived from 
some diary, or manuscript observations, communi- 
cated to him by an individual of his own family, — and 
to whom he probably refers by the initials H. F., 
which are attached to the end of his ''Journal."* 
It may be assumed also, in accounting for the indi- 
viduality and minuteness of some of his details, that 
other manuscripts were in existence at the time when 
De Foe wrote, from which he derived information ; 
for mKjuestionably, among those who resided in 
London during the dreadful Visitation of 16G5, there 
must have been some who drew up memoirs, more or 
less extensive, relating to those extraordinary and 

* It must bo recollected, that the proper surnaiue of this cele- 
brated writer was Foe, and not Do Foe, the prefix being an 
aasumption of his own when advanced to manhood . 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. ix 

appalling scenes and occurrences which distinguished 
the period in question.^ 

From considering the circumstances of the times 
when De Foe's work first appeared, which was in the 
year 1/22, we may fairly conclude that the occasion 
of his compiling it, — for he was then reduced to mere 
authorship for his means of daily support, — was to 
take advantage of the strong excitement which the 
Plague at llarseilles had raised in the public mind, 
and which was mingled with fearful apprehensions 
lest the infection should again be introduced into this 
country. During the two preceding years, Marseilles 
had been ravaged by Pestilence in the most direful 
manner; and scarcely all the sufferings that had ever 
pre\dousiy afflicted our own nation, could be com- 
pared with the heart-rending scenes which took place 
in that devoted city within that brief period. 

The chief printed sources of De Foe's Memoirs 
of the Plague Years," which is the secondary or run- 
ning title at the head of the pages of his work, was 
the Collection" of all the Bills of Mortahty for 
1665, published under the title of London's Dread- 
ful Visitation;'' the ^^-Loimologia'' of Dr. Hodges; 
and " God's Terrible Voice in the Citif/' by the 
Rev. Thomas Vincent, which appeared in 166/. The 
original edition of Loiinologia,'' which is in Latin, 
was published in 1672, in octavo; and again, en- 
larged and in quarto, in 1775: it was translated into 



* An instance of this will be found in the Loimographia'' of 
Boghurst, whose manuscript is now preserved in the British 
Museum, and copious extracts from which are given in the Ap- 
pendix, No, I., attached to this volume ; and it is very probable 
that Boghnrst's narrative had been perused by De Foe. 



X 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS, 



English by Dr. Quincey, and republished in octavo 
in 1720. 

No person who peruses De Foe's work, can avoid 
seeing how greatly he has been indebted to the Weehly 
Bills for the minute and comparative details which he 
continually introduces in respect to the numbers and 
localities of the deceased. Here, everything is in 
accordance with the strict facts : there is no display of 
imagination, and when the writer occasionally departs 
from the authorities before him, it is under circum- 
stances which are strongly in favour of the correctness 
of his own obervations. 

With regard to the other works mentioned above, 
the following extracts will probably convince every 
reader of De Foe's Journal," that he drew largely 
from those sources for the more ample account of the 
ravages of the Plague, which he himself composed; — 
and first from Dr. Hodges's Loimologia." 

In the months of August and September, the 
contagion changed its former slow^ and languid pace, 
and having, as it were, got master of all, made a 
most terrible slaughter, so that three, four, or five 
thousand died in a week, and once eight thousand. 
AVho can express the calamities of such times ? The 
whole British nation wept for the miseries of her 
metropolis. In some houses carcases lay waiting for 
burial, and in others, persons in their last agonies ; 
in one room might be heard dying gi'oans, in another 
the ravings of a delirium, and not far off, relations 
and friends bewailing l)oth their loss, and the dismal 
prosi)ect of their own sudden departure ; death was 
the sure midwife to all children, and infants passed 
immediately from the womb to the grave. Who would 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. xi 

not burst with grief to see the stock for a future 
generation hang upon the breasts of a dead mother ? 
Or the marriage bed changed the first night into a 
sepulchre, and the unhappy pair meet with death in 
their first embraces ? Some of the infected run about 
staggering hke drunken men, and fail and expire in 
the streets ; while others lie half dead and comatose, 
but never to be waked but by the last trumpet ; some 
he vomiting as if they had drunk poison ; and others 
fall dead in the market, while they are buying neces- 
saries for the support of hfe/' 

I was called to a girl the first day of her seizure, 
who breathed without any difficulty, her warmth was 
moderate and natural^ her inwards free from glowing 
and pain, her pulse not unequal or irregular ; but on 
the contrary, all things genuine and well, as if she 
had ailed nothing ; and indeed, I was rather inclined 
to think she counterfeited being sick, than really to 
be out of order, until, examining her breast, I found 
the certain characters of death imprinted in many 
places ; and in that following night she died, before 
she herself or any person about her could discern her 
otherwise out of order." 

Other passages, in immediate accordance with De 
Foe's narration, might easily be selected from the same 
work; — but the subjoined extracts from Mr. Vincent's 
tract will be seen to be still more decidedly analogous 
to the general tone and manner of our author. 

''It was in the year of our Lord, 1665, that the 
Plague began in our City of London ; after we were 
warned by the Great Plague in Holland in the year 
1664, and the beginning of it in some remote parts of 
our land in the same year ; not to speak anything 



xii INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

whether there was any signification and influence in 
the Blazing-star not long before, that appeared in 
the ^dew of London, and struck some amazement 
upon the spirits of many. It was in the month of 
May that the Plague was first taken notice of : our 
Bill of Mortality did let us know but of three, which 
died of the disease in the whole year before ; but in 
the beginning of i\Iay the Bill tells us of nine which 
fell by the Plague ; one in the heart of the City, the 
other eight in the suburbs. This was the first arrow 
of warning that was shot from Heaven amongst us, 
and fear quickly begins to creep upon people's hearts; 
great thoughts and discourse there is in the Town 
about the Plague, and they cast in their minds whi- 
ther they should go if the Plague should increase. 
Yet when the next week's Bill signifieth to them the 
decrease, from nine to three, their minds are some- 
thing appeased ; discourse of that subject cools ; fears j 
are husht, and hopes take place, that the black cloud \ 
did but threaten, and give a few drops ; but the wind ! 
would drive it away. But when in the next Bill the 
number of the dead by the Plague is mounted from 
three to fourteen, and in the next to seventeen, and 
in the next to forty-three, and the disease begins so 
much to increase and disperse, Sinners begin to be 
startled." 

The Plague is so deadly, it kills where it comes 
without mercy ; it kills, I had almost said certainly : 
very few do escape, especially upon its first entrance, 
and before its malignity be spent. Few are touched 
by it; but they are killed by it ; and it kills suddenly. 
As it gives no warning before it comes, suddenly the 
arrow is shot which woundeth unto the heart ; so it 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. xiii 

gives little time for preparatiou before it brings to the 
grave. Under other diseases, men may linger out 
many weeks and months ; under some^ divers years : 
but tlie Plague usually killetli within a few dales ; 
sometimes^ within a few hours after its first approach, 
though the body were never so strong and free from 
disease before." 

Speaking of the month of June, he says, — " Now^ 
the citizens of London are put to a stop in the career 
of their trade ; they begin to fear whom they converse 
withall, and deal withall, lest they should have come 
out of infected places : now roses and other sweet 
flowers wither in the gardens, are disregarded in the 
markets, and people dare not offer them to their noses, 
lest, with their sweet savour, that which is infectious 
should be attracted. Rue and wormwood are taken 
into the hand ; myrrh and zedoary into the mouth, 
and without some antidote few stir abroad in the 
morning. Now^ many houses are shut up where the 
Plague comes, and the inhabitants shut in, lest coming 
abroad they should spread the infection. It was very 
dismal to behold the red Crosses, and read in great 
letters. Lord have mercy upon us, on the doors, and 
watchmen standing before them with halberts ; and 
such a solitude about those places, and people passing 
by them so gingerly, and with such fearful looks, as 
if they had been lined with enemies in ambush, that 
w^aited to destroy them." 

^^In July the Plague increaseth, and prevaileth 
exceedingly ; the number of 470, which died in one 
week by the disease, ariseth to 725 the next w^ek, to 
1089 the next, to 1843 the next, and to 2010 the 
next. Now the Plague comxpasseth the walls of the 



xiv INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

City like a flood, and poureth in upon it. Now most 
parishes are infected, both without and within [the 
walls] ; yea there are not so many houses shut up by 
the Plague as by the owners forsaking them for fear 
of it, and though the inhabitants be so exceedingly 
decreased by the departure of so many thousands, 
yet the number of dying persons doth increase fear- 
fully. Now the countries keep guards, lest infectious 
persons should from the City bring the disease unto 
them. Most of the rich are now gone, and the middle 
sort \^ill not stay behind ; but the poor are forced 
through poverty to stay and abide the storm. The 
very sinking fears they have had of the Plague hath 
brought the Plague and death upon many. Some, by 
the sight of a coffin in the streets, have fallen into a 
shivering, and immediately the disease hath assaulted 
them ; and Sergeant Death hath arrested them, and 
clapt to the doors of their houses upon them, from 
whence they have come forth no more, till they have 
been brought forth to their graves." 

It would be endless to speak of what we have 
seen and heard of some in their frensie rising out of 
their beds, and leaping about then- rooms ; others 
crying and roaring at their windows ; some coming 
forth almost naked, and running into the streets. 
Strange things have others spoken and done when the 
disease was upon them ; but it was very sad to hear 
of one, who, being sick and alone, and, it is Uke, 
phrantic, burnt himself in his bed." 

Many other citations might be made from the 
same writers to show how considerably De Foe was 
indebted to them for the general facts recorded in his 

Journal." But in almost every instance where he 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERYATIO'nS. XV 

' has thus acquired information, he has given addi- 
tional interest to the subject by entering into a detail 
of circumstances which, if not to the letter true, still 

• arrests behef from its strict accordance with what we 
feel conscious must have taken place in a season of 
such grievous suffering as he describes. *^^As De 
Foe" (says his more recent biographer T^'ilson) 
was a mere child when the calamity happened, he 
could have no personal knowledge of the matters he 
has recorded. But the feehngs arising from so awful 
a visitation would not subside suddenly. It would 
continue to be the talk of those who witnessed it for 
years afterwards, so that he must have been familiar- 
ised with the subject from his childhood : and as 
curiosity is most alive and the impressions strongest 
at that period, there can be no doubt that he treasured 
up many things in his memory, from the report of his 
parents and others^ which he converted into useful 
materials as they passed through the operation of his 
own lively fancy. 

" It was De Foe's peculiar talent to seize upon any 
popular subject, and convert it by his inimitable 
genius into a fruitful source of amusement and in- 
struction. From his history of the Plague we may 
derive more information than from all the other 
publications upon the subject put together. He has 
collected all the facts attending the rise, progress, and 
termination of the malady, an accurate report of the 
number of deaths as pubhshed by authority, a faith- 
ful account of the regulations adopted to arrest and 
mitigate its fury, and numerous cases of infection, 
whether real or imaginary. But that which imparts 
life to the whole, and forms its distinguishing feature. 



X\i INTRODrCTORY OBSERVATIOXS. 

is its descriptive imagery. The ainlior's object is not 
so innch to detail tlie deadly consequences of tlie 
disorder, as to delineate its etfects upon the frighted 
minds of the inhabitants. Tl - depicted with 

all the genuine pathos of natui _ . :.._.jut any aim at 
effect, biu vdth the ease and simplicity of real life. 
The — — - " ' ' nts that foUow in rapid succes- 
sion. ---^ are vdth human misery, present, 
at the same time, an accurate pictme of life and 
manners in the metropohs, at the period referred to. 
The style and dress, the language and ideas, are 
exactly those of a citizen of London at the latter 
end of the ITth centiu'y." 

When the notes and other papers attached to this 
Edition are considered vrith reference to the circum- 
stances stated by De Foe, there can be no hesitation 
in subscribing to the gcn-yral a\ij]ientici';i oi his pro- 
duction ; — although, perhaps, in a few instances, as in 
that of the iuterview with the waterman at Black- 
wall, in the story of the Joiner and his companions, 
and in the account of the awfully-wicked conduct of 
the frequenters of the Pve tavern, he has apparently 
given a more he! elfect to the occurrences 

related, than the strict tr ' warrant. In his 

character of a Journalist [\ . i iiadesman, whatever 
may have been the real sources of his information, 
he has composed a far superior History of the Plague 
Year than any other wi'iter whatever ; and it is a 
remarkable fact, that many of the events which he 
records, derive a collateral support from the respective 
Diaries of Pepys, Evelyn, and Lord Clarendon, — 

• Vide ** Memoirs of the Life and Times of De Foe," &c., by 
Walter Wilson, Esq., Vol. iii. pp. 51-4 — 516. ^ 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. Xvii 

works which were not published until long, very 
long after his decease, and the manuscripts of which 
he could never have perused. His narration, indeed, 
has such a decided air of verisimihtude, that Mr. 
Wilson has remarked, — 

No one can take up the book without believing 
that it is the saddler of Whitechapel, who is telhng 
his own story ; that he was an eye-witness to all 
that he relates ; that he actually saw the blazing 
stars which portended the calamity; that he witnessed 
the grass growing in the streets, read the inscriptions 
upon the doors of the infected houses ; heard the 
bell-man crying, ^ Bring out your dead I ' saw the 
dead-carts conveying the people to their graves; and 
was present at the digging of the pits in which they 
were deposited. In this indeed consists the charm 
of the narrative. It is not merely a record of the 
transactions that happened during the calamity, nor 
even of private circumstances that would escape the 
pubhc eye : it is rather the familiar recital of a 
man's own observations upon all that passed before 
him, possessing all the minuteness of a log-book 
without its dulness." 

That an event of such fearful interest as the Plague 
of 1665, should have been dismissed from the pages 
of the historians Rapin and Hume in Httle more than 
a single sentence is highly extraordinary, but such is 
the case. It is not less remarkable, that Dr. Lingard 
(who does justice to its importance) has been almost 
wholly indebted for his eloquent description of this 
appalling scourge to De Foe's ^'Journal." By avoid- 
ing the redundancy, and generalising the details of 
that writer, he has composed such a terrific picture of 
h 



xviii INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



the ravages of the Pestilence that it can only be 
paralleled by the celebrated deUneation of the Plague 
of Athens by the classic pencil of Thucydides. It has 
the same nervous force, and vividness and fidehty of 
representation ; and we behold in it, as in a mirror, 
the fell triumph of the grim king of terrors; — the 
last thrill of suffering humanity, sinking into the 
grave in wretchedness and despair. 

Except his inimitable Bobinson Crusoe^^ none of 
the productions of De Foe ever attained such a high 
degree of popular celebrity as his " Journal of the 
Plague Year^^ The subject is one of the most fear- 
ful that can be met with itf the annals of the human 
race. It connects itself, in a remarkable degree, with 
the ideas we entertain of an immediate Judgment of 
Heaven ; aiid it has been so treated by almost every 
serious writer, from the time of Moses, even to our 
own age*. That impression seems to have acted 
strongly upon the mind of De Foe ; and it has im- 
parted a high moral character to his work, which 
renders the interest it excites of ten-fold value, 
because it tends both to improve the heart and to 

* In almost every age, and among even the most idolatrous 
nations, Pestilence has been regarded as "an especial instrument 
of Diviue anger and it is probably \pith reference to the deep 
interest which this belief excites, in the generality of mankind, 
that both historians and poets have so often vied with each other 
in their gloomy details of its ravages, " Neither war with all 
its pomp, nor the earthquake, nor the tempest in its overwhelm- 
ing fury, has been more distinctly personified than the Pestilence 
that walketh in darkness, — It is with the description of a Plague 
that Homer begins his sublime poem ; and the noblest of Grecian 
tragedies [the GEdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles] is commenced in 
a similar manner : and in both cases, contagion is the immediate 
meBsengor of Heavenly wrath."— See Stebbing's "Introduction'' 
to the History of the Plague Year." 1&32. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. xix 

inculcate the great lessons of humility and pious 
reverence. De Foe is never so much at home as 
when he is inviting men to repentance and reforma- 
tion ; yet he never goes out of his way for the pur- 
pose, but seizes upon incidents as they arise, and 
are calculated by their nature to give effect to his 
admonitions/' 

Were De Foe's " Journal '' to be critically exa- 
mined, it would be found that the vivid impression 
which it makes upon the reader is, in a considerable 
degree, dependent on the frequent recurrence of the 
same images. The ease, and almost colloquial fami- 
liarity of his language, is another great cause of its 
success in interesting the feehngs. The most appal- 
ling events are related with the plainness and sim- 
phcity of conversation. There is no straining for 
effect, nor is the garb of a pompous phraseology ever 
assumed to disguise the simple matter-of-fact, and 
show how the writer can shine at the expense of his 
subject. 

In concluding these remarks, the Editor will advert 
to one circumstance, of an historical nature, in which 
De Foe's work has misled many; and that is, as to 
the time of the cessation of the Plague in this country. 
No reader of the " Journal " can rise from perusing it, 
without being impressed with the idea that the 
Plague entirely ceased with us, early in 1666; but 
such was not the fact. In the course of that year, 
nearly two thousand persons fell victims to its 
ravages in London alone ; and it still continued 
shghtly to infect the metropohs until 16/9, which is 
the last year that any deaths from Plague were 
recorded in the Bills of MortaUty. 



XX INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

Since its first publication in 1 722, numerous Edi- 
tions of De Foe's work have been issued from the 
press, but on no one of them was a proper attention 
to correctness ever bestowed. That fault has been 
avoided on the present occasion. The work has 
been reprinted from the Original edition, (which is 
now extremely scarce,) and its revision has been 
carefully attended to. Numerous errors, both of 
grammar and in pointing, have been corrected, and 
such other amendments made as came strictly within 
the compass of editorial duty. The few notes at-^ 
tached to the work originally, have been reprinted 
in itahcs, in order to distinguish them from those 
which have now, for the first time, been introduced 
by the Editor. 

In most of the reprints of De Foe's " Journal of 
the Plague Year," that title has been changed into 
the " History of the Great Plague." In the present 
instance, the Editor has restored both the original 
title and the half-title as they stand in the Edition 
of 1722. 

Edward Wedlake Brayley. 

Russell Institution^ 
July Isty 1835. 



TABLE OF DEATHS BY PLAGUE, IX THE YEAR 
1665-1666. 



The subjoined Table, which has been drawn up from Original 
documents in the possession of the Company of Parish Clerks, 
and is now first printed, will show the weekly returns of Deaths 
hy Plague^ from the 19th of December 1665 to the 18th of 
December 1666. During the confusion occasioned by the 
Great Fire in September 1666, the accounts for three weeks 
were merged into one total. 



Weeks. 


Days of the 
Month. 


Plague. 


! 

1 Weeks. 


Days of the 
Month. 


Plague. 




Dec. 19— 


-26 


152 i 


26 


June 


19 


23 


2 


Jan. 


2 




97 





26 


33 


o 





9 






July 


3 


DO 







16 


158 ' 


29 





10 


33 




— 


23 


7Q 


ou 


— 


17 


51 


Q 




30 


56 


31 




24 


48 


1 


Feb. 


6 


O — 


— 


— 


31 


DO 


Q 

o 




13 




q^ 

DO 


Auff. 




4.0 


9 




20 


69 


34 




14 


48 


10 




27 


42 


35 




21 


42 


11 


Mur. 


6 


28 


36 




28 


30 


12 




13 


29 


37 


Sept. 


18 


104 


13 




20 


33 


38 




25 


31 


U 




27 


17 


39 


Oct. 


2 


23 


15 


Apr. 


3 


26 


40 




9 


15 


16 




10 


28 


41 




16 


24 


17 




17 


40 


42 




23 


16 


18 




24 


24 


43 




SO 


14 


19 


May 


1 


40 


44 


Noy. 


6 


10 


20 




8 


53 


45 




13 


3 


21 




15 


58 


46 




20 


8 


22 




22 


31 


47 






7 


23 




29 


20 


48 


Dec. 




2 


24 


June 


5 


27 ! 


49 






4 


25 




12 


31 ' 


50 




18 


3 


Total Deaths for 1665-1666 . 




J 998 





LIST OF PLATES. 



PAGE 

*^THE DEAD CART," TO FACE THE TITLE. 

"the GREAT PIT IN ALDGATE" 90 

"SOLOMON eagle" 142 

"the water31an's wife" 148 



MEMOIRS 

OP 

THE PLAGUE. 



It was about the beginning of September, 1664, 
that I, among tbe rest of my neighbours, heard, in 
ordinary discourse, that the Plague was returned 
again in Holland ; for it had been very riolent there, 
and particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in 
the year 1663, whither they say it was brought, 
some said from Italy, others from the Lerant, among 
som.e goods which were brought home by their 
Turkey fleet ; others said it was brought from 
Candia ; others, from Cyprus. It mattered not from 
whence it came ; but all agreed it was come into 
Holland again*. 

* In Pepys's ** Diary," (vol. ii. pp. 105, 111, under the dates of 
October I9th, and SOth, 1663,) are the following early notices of 
the approaching Pestilence. — " To the Coffee-house in CornhilJ, 
where much talk ahout the Turkes proceedings, and that the 
Plague is got to Amsterdam, brought by a ship from Argier, and 
it is also carried to Hambrough.'* — The Plague is much in Am- 
sterdam, and we in fear of it here, which God defend." During 
the following month, the Infection continued to spread in both the 
above places, and all ships coming thence to England were enjoined 
by an Order of Council to perform a " Quarantine" of thirty days 
in Hole-haven. 

On the 16th of June, 1664, Pepys wrote : — The talk upor 
B 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



We liad no such thing as printed Newspapers in 
those days, to spread rumours and reports of things^; 
and to improve them by the invention of men, as I 
have hved to see practised since. . But such things 
as these were gathered from the Letters of merchants 
and others, who corresponded abroad, and from them 
were handed about by word of mouth only ; so that 

the 'ChaD^'e is, that De Ruyter is dead, with fifty men of his own 
ship, of the Plague at Cales." This report, as far as regarded De 
Ruyter, was not correct : that intrepid commander survived until 
April 1676, when he was mortally wounded by a canon-shot, in an 
engagement with the French fleet, near Messina. Many, however, 
died of the Plague in De Ruyter's fleet, about the above time. 

Dr. Hodges, (author of Loimologia," &c., who, after practising 
with great success in London, during the time of the Plague, died 
poor in Ludgate, about 1684), speaks thus of the origin of the 
Infection in his Letter to a Person of Quality, on the Rise, Pro- 
gress, Symptoms, and Cure of the Plague — After the most 
strict and serious inquiry, by undoubted testimonies, I find that this 
Pest was communicated to us from the Netherlands by way of con- 
tagion ; and if the most probable relations deceive me not, it came 
from Smyrna to Holland, in a parcel of infected goods." See 
** Collection of very scarce and valuable pieces relating to the last 
Plague in the year 1665." 2nd edit. 1721. 8vo. p. 14. 

* This is not strictly accurate. Newspapers had been published 
occasionally in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and also, periodically, 
during the Civil W^ar in Charles the First*s time, and during the 
subsequent Protectorate or Interregnum. The Intelligencer^ 
was commenced by Sir Roger L'Estrange, in December, 1664 ; 
and the " Newes," also by him, on the third day afterwards ; and 
those papers were continued to be published, in alternate succes- 
sion, twice a week for some years. The ** Gazette,*' No. I. 

Published by authority," at Oxford, where the Court then 
resided, appeared in November 1665. It has no proper date ; but 
the first article in it, dated Oxon. Nov. 7, is the announcement of 
the election of the Rov. Dr. Walter Blandford, "Warden of Wad- 
ham ColL, to tbc Bishopric, vacant by the death of Dr. Paul. At 
the end of this Gazette, we are told *' The account of the Weekly 
Bill at London runs thus : — Total 1359. Plague 1050. De- 
creased 418." 

Tlie Oxford Gazette, No. 24, was the first "London Gazette," 
and bears the dates of February 1-5, 1665-6. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



3 



tilings did not spread instantly over the whole nation, 
as they do now. But it seems that the Goyernment 
had a true account of it, and seyeral councils were 
held about ways to preyent its coming oyer ; but all 
was kept yery priyate. Hence it was, that this 
rumour died off again, and people began to forget 
it as a thing we were yeiy little concerned in, and 
that we hoped was not true ; till the latter end 
of Noy ember, or the beginning of December, 1664, 
when two men, said to be Frenchmen, died of the 
Plague m Long-acre, or rather at the upper end of 
Drury-lane. The family they were in endeayoured 
to conceal it as much as possible ; but as it had gotten 
some yent in the discourse of the neighbourhood, the 
Secretaries of State gat knowledge of it ; and con- 
cerning themselyes to inquire about it, in order 
to be certain of the truth, two physicians and a 
suro;eon were ordered to o-o to the house and make 
inspection. This they did ; and finding eyident 
tokens of the sickness uj)cn both the bodies that 
were dead, they gaye their opinions pubhcly, that 
they died of the plague : whereupon it was giyen in 
to the parish clerk, and he also returned them to the 
hall, and it was printed in the weekly Bill of Mor- 
tality in the usual manner, thas : — 

Plague, 2. — Parishes infected, 1". 
The people showed a great concern at this, and 
began to be alarmed all oyer the town, and the more, 
because, in the last week in December 1664, another 
man died in the same house, and of the same dis- 
temper : and then we were easy again for about six 
weeks, when, none haying died with any marks of 
infection, it was said the distemper was gone ; but 

* It will be seen from the following dates and numbers taken 
from the Bills of ^Mortality, that London had never been fiee 
B 2 



4 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



after* that, I think it was about the 12th of February, , 
another died in another house, but in the same parish, | 
and in the same manner. 

This turned the people's eyes pretty much towards , 
that end of the town ; and the Weekly Bills showing , 
an increase of burials in St. Giles's parish more than 
usual, it began to be suspected that the Plague was 
among the people at that end of the town, and that 
many had died of it, though they had taken care to 
keep it as much from the knowledge of the public 
as possible. This possessed the heads of the people 
very much, and few cared to go through Drury-lane, 



from Infection since the year 1647, when 3597 persons died of the 
Plague : — 



1648 tb 


ere died 611 


In 1657 


there died 4 


1649 


it 


67 


J 658 


14 


1650 


If 


15 


1659 


„ 36 


1651 


1 1 


23 


1660 


„ 14 


1652 


» f 


16 


166J 


„ 20 


1653 


if 


6 


1662 


„ 12 


1654 


a 


16 


1663 


9 


1655 


ii 


9 


1664 


,, .6 


1656 


it 


6 





In the latter year, viz. 1664, there were four parishes infected. 
One person died in St. Botolph's, Aldgate ; one in St. Giles's, 
Cripplegate ; three in St. Mary's, Whitechapel ; and one in St. 
Giles's in the Fields. The unwonted alarm, therefore, which 
existed at this time, must have arisen not so much from the know- 
ledge that the plague was already in London, as from the mortality 
occasioned by it in Holland ; where at Amsterdam alone, in the 
above year, more than 24,000 persons are said to have fallen victims 
to its ravages. In fact, there had scarcely been a single twelve- 
month from the commencement of the century, during which Lon- 
don bad been entirely free from this infection. In 1603, no fewer 
than 36,269 persons are recorded to have died in the metropolis of 
iho Plaifuo ; in 1625, there perished here 35,417 ; and in 1636, 
full 10,400. In many of the intermediate years, the deaths from 
Pestilence amounted to two, three, and even four thousand and 
upwards. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 5 

or the otlier streets suspected, unless they had ex- 
traordinary business, that obhged them to it. 

This increase of the Bills stood thus : — The usual 
number of burials in a week, in the parishes of St. 
Giles in the Fields, and St. Andrew, Holborn, were 
from twelve to seventeen or nineteen each, few more 
or less ; but from the time that the Plague first 
began in St. Giles's parish, it was observed, that the 
ordinary burials increased in number considerably. 
For example : — 

From Dec. 27 to Jan. S. St. Giles's 16 

St Andrew's 1 7 
Jan. 3 to Jan. 10. St. GHes's 12 

St. Andrew's 25 
Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. St. Giles's 18 

St. Andrew's 18 
Jan. 1 7 to Jan. 24. St. Giles's 23 

St. Andrew's 16 
Jan. 24 to Jan. 31. St. Giles's 24 

St. Andiw'sl5 
Jan. 31 to Feb. 7. St. Giles's 21 

St. Andrew's 23 
Feb. 7 to Feb 14. St. Giles's 24 
whereof 1 of the Plaffiie. 



The Hke increase of the Bills was observed in the 
parish of St. Bride, adjoining on one side of Holborn 
parish, and in the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, 
adjoining on the other side of Holborn ; in both 
which parishes, the usual numbers that died weekly, 
wer^ from four to six or eight : whereas at that time 
they were increased, as follows : — 

From Dec. 20 to Dec. 27. St. Bride's 

St. James's 8 

Dec. 27 to Jan. 3. St. Bride's 6 

St. James's 9 

Jan. 3 to Jan. 10. St. Bride's 11 

St. James's 7 

Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. St. Bride's 12 

St. James's 9 



6 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

Jan. 17 to Jan. 24. St. Bride's 9 

St. James's 15 
Jan. 24 to Jan. 31. St. Bride's 8 

St. James's 12 
Jan. 31 to Feb. 7. St. Bride's 13 

St. James's 5 
Feb. 7 to Feb. 14. St. Bride's 12 

St. James's 6 

Besides this, it was observed with great uneasi- 
ness hj the people, that the Weekly Bills in general 
increased very much during these weeks, although it 
was at a time of the year when usually the Bills are 
very moderate. 

The usual number of burials within the Bills of 
Mortality for a week, was from about 240 or there- 
abouts, to 300. The last was esteemed a pretty high 
Bill ; but after this we found the Bills successively 
increasing as follows : — 

Buried. Increased, 
From Dec. 20 to Dec. 27. 291 

Dec. 27 to Jan. 3. 349 58 
Jan. 3 to Jan. 10. 394 45 
Jan. 10 to Jan. 17. 415 21 
Jan. 17 to Jan. 24. 474 59 

This last Bill was really frightful, being a higher 
number than had been known to have been buried in 
one week, since the preceding Visitation of 1636^. 

However, all this went off again, and the weather 
proving cold, and the frost, which began in December, 
still continuing very severe, even till near the end of 

* In March, 1665, the importation of English Manufactures, even 
to Beer, was prohibited in Holland (on account of the Plague), 
under a penalty of 1000 guilders, besides confiscation of the pro- 
perty. Tiiis, probubly, was in retaliation for the Government mea- 
sure of the preceding year, when the King (Charles II.) excused his 
prohibition of merchandise from Holland, "on account of the Plague 
having been introduced into that Country." 



J 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGtTE. 7 

February*, attended with sharp though moderate 
winds, the Bills decreased again, and the city [town] 
grew healthy, and every body began to look upon 
the danger as good as over ; only that still the 
burials in St. Giles's continued high : from the be- 
ginning of ilpril especially, they stood at twenty-five 
each week, till the week from the 18th to the 25 th, 
when there was buried in St. Giles's parish thirty, 
whereof two of the Plague, and eight of the spotted 
fever, which was looked upon as the same thing ; 
hkewise the number that died of the spotted fever 
in the whole increased, being eight the week before, 
and twelve the week above-named. 

This alarmed us all again, and terrible apprehen- 
sions w^ere among the people, especially the weather 
being now changed and growing warm, and the 
summer being at hand. However, the next week 
there seemed to be some hopes again, the Bills were 
low, the number of the dead in all was but 388, 
there was none of the Plague, and but four of the 
spotted fever. 

* In Evelyn's " Diary," vol. i. p. 370, is the following entry, 
under the date December 22. — " It was now exceeding cold, and a 
hard long frosty season, and the Comet was very visible." Under 
January 4th, 1665, he says, excessive sharp frost and snow." 
Pepys also, on the 6th of February, in the same year, made the 
following entry in his Diary — One of the coldest days, all say, 
they ever felt in England." The comet was also noticed in a letter 
from Erfurt, bearing date December 27th, 1664-5, together with 
other appearances, which were then regarded as indications of forth- 
coming calamities : — 

" We have had our part here of the Comet, as well as other 
places, besides which here have been other terrible apparitions and 
noises in the ayre, as fires and sounds of cannon and musket shot ; 
and here has likewise appeared several times the resemblance of a 
Black Man, which has made our Sentinels to quit their posts ; and 
one of them was lately thrown down by him from the top of the 
wall," Vide " The Newes, published for the Satisfaction and 
Information of the People : (with Privilege) Numb. 2." 



8 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



But the following week it returned again, and the 
distemper was spread into two or three other parishes, 
viz., St. Andrew's, Holborn; St. Clement's Danes ; and, 
to the great affliction of the city, one died within the 
walls, in the parish of St. ]Marv Wool-church, that is 
■to say, in Bearbinder-lane, near Stocks-market*; in 
all there were nine of the Plague, and six of the 
spotted fever. It was, however, upon inquiry found, 
that this Frenchman, who died in Bearbinder-lane, 
was one who, having lived in Long- acre, near the 
infected houses, had removed for fear of the distemper, 
not knowing that he was already infected. 

This was the beginning of May, yet the weather 
was temperate, variable, and cool enough, and people 
had still some hopes. That which encom-aged them 
was, that the City was healthy : the whole ninety- 
seven parishes buried but fifty-four f, and we began 



* Stocks -market was then kept on the ground now occupied by 
the Mansion-house. Latterly, it was most known as a herb and 
poultry market. 

t The Parish Registers in England were commenced in 1538, 
in consequence of one of the seventeem'nj unctions set forth in that 
year in the name of the King [Henry Till.] by the Lord Thomas 
Cromwell, his vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters, which ioj unction 
appointed that the Parson, Vicar or Curate, of every parish should 
keep a true and exact Register of all "Weddings, Chiistenings and 
Burials ; and tlie weekly Bills of Mortality, containing an account 
of Cliristenings as well as Burials, taken by the Company of Paiish 
Clerks of London, had their rise the 21st of December, 1592. In 
1594, the particular or weekly account of both Christenings and 
Burials was first made public, as also was the general or yearly 
account, until the 18ih of December, 1595, when it was discon- 
tinued upon the ceasing of the Plague. 

It is here to be remarked, that the Bill of Mortality, now in its 
infancy, consisted of but 109 parishes ; which were then only alpha- 
bet'cally set down, without making any distinction of the out- 
parishes from those within the walls ; whereas afterwards, in 1665, 
when Mr. John Bell, clerk of the Company of Parish Clerks, pub- 
lished at London, in 4to, his " Lo?idon*s Remembrancer^ or a 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



9 



to hope, that as it was chiefly among the people at the 
other end of the town, it might go no farther ; and the 
rather, because the next week, which was from the 
9th of May to the 1 6th, there died but three, of which 
not one within the whole City or Liberties, and St. 
Andrew's buried but fifteen, which was very low. 
It is true, St. Giles's buried two-and- thirty ; but, still 
as there was but one of the Plague, people began to 
be easy : the whole Bill also was very low; for the 
week before the Bill was but 347, and the week 
above-mentioned, but 343. We continued in these 
hopes for a few days ; but it was but for a few, for 
the people were no more to be deceived thus ; they 
searched the houses, and found that the Plague was 
really spread every way, and that many died of it, 
every day ; so that now all our extenuations abated, 
and it was no more to be concealed ; nay, it quickly 
appeared, that the infection had spread itself beyond 
all .hopes of abatement : that in the parish of St. 
Giles it was gotten into several streets, and several 
families lay all sick together ; and, accordingly, in 
the weekly Bill for the next week, the thing began 
to show itself. There was, indeed, but fourteen set 
down of the Plague ; but this was all knavery and 
collusion, for in St. Giles's parish they buried forty 
in all, whereof it was certain most of them died of the 
Plague, though they were set down of other dis- 
tempers ; and though the number of all the burials 
was not increased above thirty-two, the whole Bill 

True Account of every particular Week's Christenings and 
Mortality in all the years of Pestilence within the Bills of 
Mortality the said Bills compreliended 130 parisiies ; and distin- 
guished the parishes by the four divisions of the Ninety-seven 
parishes within the walls, the Sixteen parishes without the walls, 
the Twelve out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, and the five 
parishes in the City and Liberties of Westminster. See MSS. in 
the British Museum, Ayscough's Catalogue, No. 4213. 



10 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



being but 385, yet tbere were fourteen of the spotted 
fever, as well as fourteen of the Plague ; and we took 
it for granted upon the whole, that there were fifty 
died that week of the Plague. 

The next Bill was from the 23rd of May to the 
30th, when the number of the Plague was seven- 
teen* : but the burials in St. Giles's were fifty-three, 
a frightful number I of whom they set down but nine 
of the Plague : but on an examination more strictly 
by the Justices of the peace, and at the Lord Mayor's 
request, it was found that there were twenty more, 
who were really dead of the Plague in that parish, 
but had been set down of the spotted fever or other 
distempers, besides others concealed. 

But those were trifiing things to what followed 
immediately after ; for now the weather set in hot f , 
and from the first week in June, the infection spread 
in a dreadful manner, and the Bills rose high : the 
articles of the fever, spotted fever, and teeth, began 
to swell ; for all that could conceal their distempers 
did it, to prevent their neighbours' shunning and 
refusing to converse with them ; and also to prevent 
authority shutting up their houses, which, though it 
was not yet practised, was yet threatened, and people 
were extremely terrified at the thoughts of it. 



* May 24th. — " To the CofFee-liouse, where all the news is of 
the Dutch being gone out, and of the Plague growing upon us in 
this town, and of remedies against it ; some saying one thing, and 
some another." — Pepys's " Diary." 

t Tlie heat of the weather at this period is thus alluded to by 
Pepys, under the date of June 7th. — " The hottest day that ever I 
felt in my life. Tiiis day, much against my will, I did in Drury- 
lane sec two or three liouses marked with a Red Cross upon the 
doors, and ^ Lord have Mercy upon us^' writ there; which was a 
Bad sight to me, being the first of tlie kind that to my remembrance 
I ever saw." Again, on the 16th of July, Pepys wrote thus : — 
"Lord's-day. — It was most extraordinary hot as ever I knew it." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



11 



The second week in June, tlie parish of St. Giles, 
where still the weight of the Infection lay, buried 
120, whereof though the Bills said but sixty-eight of 
the Plague, everybody said there had been 100 at 
least, calculating it from the usual number of funerals 
in that parish as above. 

Till this week the city continued free, there having 
never any died except that one Frenchman whom I 
mentioned before, within the whole ninety- seven 
parishes. Now there died four within the city, one 
in "Wood- street, one in Fenchurch street, and two in 
Crooked-lane. Southwark was entirely free, not one 
having yet died on that side of the water. 

I lived without Aldgate, about mid-way between 
Aldgate church and Whitechapel bars, on the left 
hand, or north side, of the street ; and as the Dis- 
temper had not reached to that side of the city, our 
neighbourhood continued very easy : but at the other 
end of the town, their consternation was very great ; 
and the richer sort of people, especially the nobihty 
and gentry, from the west part of the city, thronged 
out of town with their families and servants, in an 
unusual manner ; and this was more particularly 
seen in Whitechapel ; that is to say, the broad street 
where I lived. Indeed nothing was to be seen but 
waggons and carts, with goods, women, servants, 
children, &c. Coaches filled with people of the better 
sort, and horsemen attending them, and all hurrying 
away; besides innumerable numbers of men on horse- 
back, some alone, others with servants, and generally 
speaking, all loaded with baggage and fitted out for 
travelling, as any one might perceive by their appear- 
ance. Then empty waggons and carts appeared, and 
spare horses with servants, who it was apparent were 
returning or sent from the country to fetch more 
people. 



12 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



This was a veryterrible and rr.elanch-jly thing: to see, 
and as it was a sight which I c : .hi nc^ bn: 1: :k cn 
from momiiig to night, for in ^ ^ ^ n hhxLg 
else of moment to be seen, i: n!..7 n.i -nn very 
serious thoughts of the misery that was c : ning nr : n 
the City, and the unhappy condition ot those who 
would be left in it. 



This hurry of the people was such for some 
weeks, that there was no getting at the Lord 
Mayor's door without exceedhig difficulty ; there 
was such pressing and crowding there to get passes 
and certificates of Health, for such as tra^ei^d 
abroad ; for without these, there was no being ad- 
mitted to pass through the towns upon the road, 
nor to lodge in any inn. Xow^ as there had none 
died in the City for all this time, n;y Lord Mayor 
gare certificates of Health without any difficulty to 
all those who hved in the 97 parishes, and to those 
within the Liberties too for a w hiie 



• The rapid increase of the Plague in :..c n::i.:':. :: Juie, :'ie 
haste with \^hich the people departe ' ' t riir'.r:: 2,:e L::::ed 

in vario'iB passages of PepvB's " I» ... : : lis:-- ; June 

1 / th. — " I: struck me verr deep ::. : : i ^ : r L :,:kiev 

coach from [the] Lord Treasurer's down Ho ;. : . I ^ 

found to drive easilv and easily, at last stoo: r ... _ ^ c;~ii 

hardly able to stand, and told me that l.e v is ;u : . 7 ~ery 
sick, and almost blind, he could not sec: s: I . ti:. :::.:o 
another coach, with a sad heart for the poor man, iijEt^f 
also, lefit he should have been struck with the P^a. ir." 

June 20ib. — " This day I informed myself the: : eie c ei :" . ir 
or five at Westminster, of the Plague, in several hour i ,: 1 ^ : . iuv 



last, in Bell- alley, over against the Palace-gate." 

June 2l9t. — " I find all the town going out of : 
and cariiages being all full of p>eople going into th(. . . 

June 25th. — ** The Plague increases mightily. T tb z 
a house, at a bitt-maker's over against St. Clement's cL -. _e 
open street, shut up; which is a sad sight." 

June 28th. — " In my way to Westminster Hall, I obeenred sereral 
Plague bouBes in Kiog's-street and the Palace.'* 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



13 



I This hurry, I say, continued some weeks, that 

II is to say, all the month of May and June, and the 
more, because it was rumoured that an Order of the 
Government was to be issued out, to place turnpikes 
and barriers on the road, to prevent people's travel- 
ling ; and that the towns on the road would not 
suffer people from London to pass, for fear of bring- 
ing the infection along with them ; though neither of 
these rumours had any foundation, but in the imagi- 
nation, especially at first *. 

I now began to consider seriously ydth myself, 
concerning my own case, and how I should dispose 
of myself ; that is to say, whether I should resolve 
to stay in London, or shut up my house and flee, as 
many of my neighbours did. I have set this par- 
ticular down so fully; because I know not but it may 
be of moment to those who come after me, if they 
come to be brought to the same distress, and to the 
same manner of making their choice ; and therefore I 

June 29th. — "To Whitehall, where the court was full of waggons 
and people ready to go out of town. This end of the town every 
day grows very bad of the Plague. The Mortality Bill is come to 
267; which is about ninety more than the last. — Home; calling at 
Somerset Hcuse, where all were packing up too." 

* On the 13th of May, a Court of Privy Council was held at 
Whitehall, when a Committee of the Lords was formed for ** Pre- 
vention of the spreading of the Infection," and under their orders 
a small 4to pamphlet was issued, intituled Certain necessary 
Directions, as well for the Cure of the Plague, as for Preventing 
the Infection;" which had been drawn up by the College of Phy- 
siciar s in the latter part of that month. Among some of the 
remedies therein prescribed, and which might be termed ludicrous 
in the present advanced state of medical science, is the following:— 
*' Pull off the feathers from the tails of Living cccks, hens, 
pigeons, or chickens; and holding their bills, hold them hard to the 
botch or swelling, and so keep them at that part till they die, and 
by this means draw out the poison. It is good to apply a cupping- 
glass, or embers in a dish, with a handful of sorrel upon the 
embers." 



14 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



desire this account may pass with them^ rather for a 
direction to themselves to act by, than a history of 
my actings^ seeing it may not be of one farthing 
value to them to note what became of me. 

I had two important things before me; — the one 
was the carrying on my business and shop, which 
was considerable, and in which was embarked ail my 
effects in the world ; and the other was the preser- 
vation of my life in so- dismal a calamity, as I saw 
apparently was coming upon the whole city ; and 
which, however great it was, my fears perhaps, as 
well as other people's, represented to be much greater 
than it could be. 

The first consideration was of great moment to 
me ; my trade was a Saddler's ; and as my deahngs 
were chiefly not by a shop or chance trade, but 
among the merchants trading to the English colonies 
in America, so my effects lay very much in the hands 
of such. I was a single man, ^tis true; but I had a 
family of servants, whom I kept at my business, had 
a house, shop, and warehouses filled with goods ; 
and, in short, to leave them all, as things in such a 
case must be left, that is to say, without any over- 
seer or person fit to be trusted with them, had been 
to hazard the loss not only of my trade, but of my 
goods, and indeed of all I had in the world. 

I had an elder Brother at the same time in 
London, and not many years before come over from 
Portugal ; and advising with him, his answer was 
in three words, the same that was given in another 
case quite different, viz., Master, save thyself," 
In a word, he was for my retiring into the country, 
as he resolved to do himself with his family; telling 
me, wliat he had, it seems, heard abroad, that the 
best ])reparation for the Plague was to run away 
from it." As to my argument of losing my trade, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



15 



my goods, or debts, lie quite confuted me. He told 
me tlie same thing whicli I argued for my staying, 
-viz., ''that I would trust God with my safety and 
health," was the strongest repulse to my pretensions 
of losing my trade and my goods ; for, says he, '' Is 
it not as reasonable that you should trust God with 
the chance or risk of losing your trade, as that you 
should stay in so imminent a point of danger, and 
trust him with your life ? 

I could not argue that I was in any strait, as to a 
place where to go, having several friends and rela- 
tions in Northamptonshire, whence our family first 
came from ; and particularly, 1 had an only sister 
in Lincolnshire, very willmg to receive and enter- 
tain me. 

My brother, who had already sent his wife and 
two children into Bedfordshire, and resolved to 
follow them, pressed my going very earnestly ; and 
I had once resolved to comply with his desires, but 
at that time could get no horse : for though it is 
true, all the people did not go out of the city of 
London; yet I may venture to say, that, in a manner, 
all the horses did ; for there was hardly a horse to be 
bought or hired in the whole city for some weeks. 
Once I resolved to travel on foot with one servant ; 
and, as many did, lie at no inn, but carry a soldier's 
tent with us, and so lie in the fields, the weather 
being very warm, and no danger from taking cold : 
I say, as many did, because several did so at last, 
especially those who had been in the armies, in the 
war which had not been many years past ; and I 
must needs say that, speaking of second causes, had 
most of the people that travelled done so, the Plague 
had not been carried into so many country-toAvns 
and houses as it was, to the great damage, and indeed 
to the ruin, of abundance of people. 



16 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



But then my servant, whom I had intended to take 
down with me, deceived me ; and being frighted at 
the increase of the Distemper, and not knowing when 
I should go, he took other measures, and left me, so 
I was put off for that time; and one way or other, I 
always found, that to appoint to go away was always 
crossed by some accident or other, so as to disappoint 
and put it off again; and this brings in a Story, 
which otherwise might be thought a needless digres- 
sion, viz., about these disappointments being from 
Heaven. 

I mention this Story also as the best method I can 
advise any person to take in such a case, especially 
if he be one that makes conscience of his duty, and 
would be directed what to do in it ; namely, that he 
should keep his eye upon the particular Providences 
which occur at that time, and look upon them com- 
plexly, as they regard one another, and as altogether 
regard the question before* him; and then I think he 
may safely take them for intimations from Heaven 
of what is his unquestioned duty to do in such a 
case ; I mean as to going away from, or staying in, 
the place where we dwell, when visited with an 
infectious distemper. 

It came very warmly into my mind, one morning, 
as I was musing on this particular thing, that as 
nothing attended us without the direction or per- 
mission of Divine power, so these disappointments 
must have something in them extraordinary ; and I 
ought to consider, whether it did not evidently point 
out or intimate to me, that it was the will of 
Heaven I should not go. It immediately followed 
in my thoughts, that if it really was from God that 
I should stay, he was able effectually to preserve 
me in the midst of all the death and danger tha' 
would surround me ; and that if I attempted t^ 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



17 



secnre myself by fleeing from my habitation, and acted 
contrary to these intimations which I believe to be 
Divine, it was a kind of flying from God, and that 
he could cause his justice to overtake me when and 
where he thought fit. 

These thoughts quite turned my resolutions again ; 
and when I came to discourse with my Brother 
again, I told him that I inclined to stay and take 
my lot in that station in which God had placed me ; 
and that it seemed to be made more especially my 
duty, on the account of v^hat I have said/' 

My Brother, though a very religious man himself, 
laughed at all I had suggested about its being an 
intimation from Heaven, and told me several stories 
of such fool-hardy people, as he called them, as I 
was ; that I ought, indeed, to submit to it as a work 
of Heaven, if I had been any way disabled by dis- 
tempers or diseases, and that then not being able to 
go, I ought to acquiesce in the direction of him, who 
having been my Maker had an undisputed right of 
sovereignty in disposing of me ; and that then there 
had been no difficulty to determine which was the 
Call of his Providence and which was not. But that 
I should take it as^'an intimation from Heaven, that 
I should not go out of town, only because I could not 
hire a horse to go, or my fellow was run away that 
was to attend me, was ridiculous ; since, at the same 
time I had my health and limbs, and other servants, 
and might, with ease, travel a day or two on foot ; 
and having a good certificate of being in perfect 
health, might either hire a horse, or take post on the 
road, as I thought fit. 

Then he proceeded to tell me of the mischievous 
consequences which attended the presumptioji of 
t Turks and Mahometans in Asia and in other 
places, where he had been, (for my Brother being a 



18 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



merchant, was, a few years before, as I have already 
observed, returned from abroad, commg last from 
Lisbon,) and how, presuming upon their professed 
predestinating notions, and of every man's end being 
predetermined and unalterably before-hand decreed^ 
they would go unconcerned into infected places, and 
converse with infected persons, by which means they 
died at the rate of ten or fifteen thousand a week ; 
whereas the Europeans or Christian merchants, who 
kept themselves retired and reserved, generally 
escaped the contagion/' 

Upon these arguments my Brother changed my 
resolutions again, and I began to resolve to go, and 
accordingly made all things ready ; for, in short, the 
Infection increased around me, and the bills were 
risen to almost 700 a week, and my Brother told me 
he would venture to stay no longer. I desired him 
to let me consider of it but till the next day, and I 
would resolve ; and as I had already prepared every 
thing as well as I could, as to my business,, and w^ho 
to intrust my affairs with, I had little to do but to 
resolve. 

I went home that evening greatly oppressed in my 
mind, irresolute, and not knowing what to do : 1 had 
set the evening wholly apart to consider seriously, 
about it, and was all alone; for already people had, 
as it were by a general consent, taken up the custom: 
of not going out of doors after sunset; the reasons I 
shall have occasion to say more of by-and-by. 

In tlie retirement of this evening I endeavoured to 
resolve first, what it was my duty to do ; and I 
stated the arguments with which my Brother had 
])ressed me to go into the country, and I set against 
them the strong impressions which I had on my mind 
for staying ; the visible call I seemed to have from 
tlic particular circumstance of my calling, and the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



19 



care due from me for the preservation of my effects, 
which were, as I might say, my Estate ; also the 
intimations which 1 thought I had from Heaven, 
that to me signified a kind of direction to venture, 
and it occurred to me, that if I had what I might call 
a direction to stay, I ought to suppose it contained a 
promise of being preserved, if I obeyed. 

This lay close to me, and my mind seemed more 
and more encouraged to stay than ever, and sup- 
ported with a secret satisfaction that I should be 
kept. Add to this, that turning over the Bible 
which lay before me, and while my thoughts were 
more than ordinarily serious upon the question, I 
cried out, " Well, I knoio not what to do ; Lord, 
dii^ect me ! " and the like ; and, at that juncture, 
I happened to stop turning over the book, at the 
ninety-first Psalm ; and casting my eye on the second 
verse, I read on to the seventh verse exclusive ; and ^ 
after that included the tenth, as follows : — I will 
say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress ; 
my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall de- 
liver thee from the snare of the foioler^ and from the 
noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his 
feathers, and und-er his xoings sJialt thou trust : his 
truth shall he thy shield and hucJcler. Thou shalt 
not he afraid for the terror hy night, nor for the 
arrow that fieth hy day ; nor for the pestilence that 
walketh in dai^kness ; nor for the destruction that 
wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy 
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; hut it 
shall not come nigh thee. Only loith thine eyes shalt 
thou hehold and see the reward of the loiched. Be- 
cause thou hast made the Lord, ivhich is my refuge, 
even the Most High^ thy hahitation, there shcdl no 
evil hefal thee, neither shall any plague come nigh 
thy divelling,^^ &c. ^ 
c 2 



20 



MEMOIRS OF THE FLAGtJE. 



I scarce need tell tlie reader, that from that mo- 
ment I resolved that I would stay in the town; and 
castmg myself entirely upon the goodness and pro= 
tection of the Almighty, would not seek any other 
shelter v/hateyer; and that as my Times were in his 
Hands, he was as able to keep me in a Time of Infec- 
tion as in a Time of Health ; and if he did not think 
fit to deliver me, still I was in his Hands, and it was 
meet he should do with me as should seem good to Him. 

With this resolution I went to bed ; and I was 
farther confirmed in it the next day, by the woman 
being taken ill with whom I had intended to intrust 
my house and all my aifairs. But I had a farther 
obligation laid on me on the same side ; for the next 
day I found myself very much out of order also ; so 
that if I would have gone away, I could not, and I 
continued ill three or four days, and this entirely 
determined my stay ; so I took my leave of my 
brother, who went away to Dorking, in Surrey, and 
afterwards fetched a round farther into Bucking- 
hamshire, or Bedfordshire, to a retreat he had found 
out there for his family. 

It was a very ill time to be sick in ; for if any one 
complained, it was immediately said he had the 
Plague ; and though I had, indeed, no symptoms of 
that distemper, yet being very ill, both in my head 
and in my stomach, I w^as not without apprehension 
that I really was affected ; but in about three days I 
grew ])etter ; the third night rested well, sweated a 
little, and was much refreshed : the apprehensions of 
its being the Infection went also quite away with my 
illness, and I went about my business as usual. 

These things, however, put off all my thoughts of 
going into the country ; and my brother also being 
gone, I had no more debate, either with him, or with 
myself, on that subject. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



21 



It was now mid- July, and, the Plague, which had 
chiefly raged at the other end of the town, and as I 
said before, in the parishes of St. Giles, St. Andrew, 
Holborn, and towards Westminster, began now to 
come eastward towards the part where I lived ^, It 
was to be observed, indeed, that it did not come 
straight on towards us ; for the City, that is to say, 
within the walls, was indifferent healthy still ; nor 
was it got then very much over the water into South- 
wark, for though there died that week 1268 of all 
distempers, whereof it might be supposed above 900 
died of the Plague, yet there were but twenty-eight 
in the whole City, within the walls, and but nineteen 
in Southwark, Lambeth parish included ; whereas, 
in the parishes of St. Giles and St, Martin in the 
Fields, alone, there died 421. 

But v/e perceived the Infection kept chiefly in the 
out-parishes, which being very populous, and fuller 
also of poor, the Distemper found more to prey upon 
than in the City, as I shall observe afterwards ; we 
perceived, I say, the Distemper to draw our way, 
viz. by the parishes of Clerkenwell, Cripplegate, 
Shoreditch, and Bishop sgate; which last two parishes 
joining to Aldgate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, the 
Infection came at length to spread its utmost rage 
and violence in those parts, even when it abated ac: 
the western parishes where it began. 

It was very strange to observe, that in this par- 
ticular week, from the fourth to the eleventh of 
July, when, as I have observed, there died near 400 
of the Plague in the two parishes of St. Martin and 

* July 6tli.— I could not see Lord Brouncker, nor hnd much 
mind, one of the great houses within two doors of him [in Covent 
Garden] being shut up : and Lord ! the number of houses visited^ 
which this day I observed through the town, quite round in my 
way by Long Lane and London Yfall."— Pepys's Diary. ''^ 



1 



2'2 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. ; 

St. Giles ill the Fields pnly, there checl in the parish i 
of Aldgate but four, in the parish of TVhitechapel \ 
three, in the parish of Stepney but one. : 

Likewise, in the next v>-eek, from the eleventh of ■ 
July to the eighteenth, when the week's Bill was -j 
1/61? yet there died no more of the Plague, on the ■ 
whole South wark side of the water, tlian sixteen i 

But this face of things soon changed, and it began ! 
to thicken, in Cripplegate parish especially, and in 
Clerkenwell ; so that by the second week in August, ; 
Cripplegate parish alone buried SS6. and Clerken- i 
well 155 ; of the first. 850 might well be reckoned | 
to die of the Plague ; and of the last, the Bill itself I 
said, 145 were of the Plague. 

During the month of July, and while, as I have 
observed, our part of the town seemed to be spared, 
in comparison of the icest part +, I went ordinarily 
about the streets, as my business reqrdred, and par- 
ticularly went, generally, once in a day, or in two 
days, into the City, to my Brother's house, which he 
had given me charge of, and to see if it was safe : 
and having the key in my pocket, I used to go over 
the house, and over most of the rooms, to see that all 

was well ; for though it be something wonderful to I 

1 I 

* " The -wind blowing wcstvraid [from tlie east] io lorg toge- i 

ther, from before Christmas uDtil July, about seven months, was j 

the cause the Plagiie began first at the west end of the town, as at i 
St. Giles', and St. Martin's Westminster. Afterwards it graduallr 

insinuated and crept down Holborn and the Strand, and then into j 

the City, and at last to the east end of the suburbs ; so that it | 
w-as half a year at the west end of the town before the east end 

and Stepney were infected, which was about the middle of July." j 

— Vide Extracts from Boghurst's " Loimographia," Appendix, | 
No. I. ^ j 

+ Pepys says, under the date of July 18th : — "I was much ' ; 

troubled this day to hear at Westminster, how the officers do bury j 

the dead in the open Tuttlc-fields, pretending want of room else- j 

where." — See his " Diaiy," vol, ii, j 



MEMOIRS or THE PLAGUE. 



23 



tell^ that any should have hearts so hardened^ in the 
midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steals yet 
certain it is^ that all sorts of yillanies, and even 
levities and debaucheries, were then practised in the 
town, as openly as ever ; I will not say quite as fre- 
quently, because the nirmbers of people were many 
ways lessened. 

But the City itself began now to be visited too, I 
mean within the walls ; but the number of people 
there was indeed extremely lessened by so great a 
multitude having been gone into the country ; and 
even all this month of July they continued to flee, 
though not m such multitudes as fonnerly. In 
August, indeed, they fled in such a manner, that I 
began to think there would be really none but magis- 
trates and servants left in the City. 

As they fled now out of the City, so I should ob- 
serve that the Court removed early, viz. in the month 
of June, and went to Oxford, where it pleased God 
to preserve them ; and the Distemper did not, as I 
heard of, so much as touch them ; for which I can- 
not say that I ever saw they showed any great token 
of thankfulness, and hardly anything of Reformation, 
though they did not want being told that their 
crying vices might, without breach of charity, be said 
to have gone far in bringing that terrible Judgment 
upon the whole nation 

* There is a material error in the above paragraph. The Cour- 
]^t Whitehall on tbe 29th of June, but went no further than to 
Hampton Court, and remained thereuntil the 27th of July follow- 
iiig, when the King and Queen, as we learn from Pepys, set out 
towards Salisbury." The Court, with some little intermission, con- 
tinued in that city, until nearly the end of September, on the 28th 
of which month, the King arrived at Oxford, where, soon after- 
wards, he held a Parliament. 

In the " Newes," Xo. 79, is the following paragraph : — Lul- 
worth Castle, in the Isle of Purbeck, September 18th. — His Majesty 



24 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 



The face of London was now, indeed, strangely 
altered, I mean the whole mass of buildings, Citj;, 1 
Liberties, Suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and 1 
altogether ; for as to the particular part called the / 
City, or within the walls, that was not yet much 
infected ; but, in the whole, the face of things, I say, 
was much altered : sorrow and sadness sat upon 
every face; and though some parts were not yet over- 
whelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned ; and as 
we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked 
on himself and his family as in the utmost danger. 
Were it possible to represent those times exactly to 
those persons that did not see them, and to give 
them due ideas of the horror that everywhere pre- 
sented itself, it must make just impressions upon their 
minds, and fill them with surprise. London might 
well be said to be all in tears ; the mourners did not 
go about the streets, indeed, for nobody put on black, 
or made a formal dress of mourning for their nearest 
friends ; but the voice of mourning was truly heard 
in the streets ; the shrieks of women and children at 
the windows and doors of their houses, where their 
dearest relations were, perhaps, dying, or just dead, 
were so frequent to be heard, as we passed the streets, 
that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the 
world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were 
seen in almost every house, especially in the first 
part of the Visitation ; for, towards the latter end, 

was yesterday at the Chapel in this Castle, to the exceeding conafort 
of all that had the honour to hehold him : no impression at all of 
his late indisposition appearing in his countenance, but on the con- 
trary, an ayre of perfect serenity and health.'* In the succeeding 
" Intelligencer," No. 80, is this notice — " Winton, September 23. — 
The removal of the Court from Salisbury to Oxford will leave this 
town thin, the High Court of Admiralty being already upon prepa- 
ration for tlieir removal too." &c. — " His Royal Highness [the Duke 
of York] set forward early this morning towards Oxford. — Ibid/* 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



25 



men's hearts were hardened^ and Death was so always 
before their eyes, that they did not so much concern 
themselves for the loss of their friends, expecting that 
themselves should be summoned the next hour. 

Business led me out sometimes to the other end of 
the town, even when the sickness was chiefly there; 
and as the thing was new to me, as well as to every- 
body else, it was a most surprising thing to see those 
streets, which were usually so thronged, now gro\\Ti 
desolate"^ ; and so few people to be seen in them, that 
if I had been a stranger, and at a loss for my way, I 
might sometimes have gone the length of a whole 
street, I mean of the by-streets, and seen nobody to 
direct me, except watchmen, set at the doors of such 
houses as were shut up; of which I shall speak 
presently. 

One day, being at that part of the town, on some 
special business, curiosity led me to observe things 
more than usually; and, indeed, I walked a great 
way where I had no business. I went up Holborn, 
and there the street was full of people; but they 
walked in the middle of the great street, neither on 
one side or the other, because, as I suppose, they 
would not mingle with anybody that came out of 
houses, or m.eet with smells and scents from houses 
that might be infected. 

The Inns of Court were all shut up ; nor were very 
many of the lawyers in the Temple, or Lincoln' s-inn, 
or Gray' s-inn, to be seen theref. Everybody was at 

* We learn from Pepys, that the desertion was so great, that 
St. James's Park was quite locked up and, under July 22Dd, 
he writes : — '* I by coach home, not meeting with but two coaches, 
and but two carts from White Hall to my own house, that I could 
observe, and the streets mighty thin of people.*' 

+ In consequence of the spreading of the Infection, the meetings 
of the Royal Society (which then assembled at Gresham College, 
in Broad Street) were agreed to be discontinued on the 28th of 



26 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



peace; there was no occasion for lawyers: besides, 
it being in the time of the vacation too, they were 
generally gone into the country. '^Tiole rows of 
houses in some places were shut close up, the inha- 
bitants all fled, and only a watchman or two left. 

"^^Tien I speak of rows of houses being shut up, I 
do not mean shut up by the magistrates, but that 
great numbers of persons followed the Court, by the 
necessity of their employments, and other dependen- 



Jime, ''until summoned by the President to meet again:" and 
most of tlie members retired into the country. The printing of 
the "Philosophical Transactions," of which five numbers had then 
been published, was also suspended till Xovember. After the par- 
tial cessation of the sickness, the Council of the Royal Society re- 
assembled at Gresham College on the 21st of February, 1665-6 ; 
when it was ordered " that the Fellows be summoned to attend on 
the 14 th of March on which day the general weekly meetings 
were again commenced. 

During the recess, Mr. Henry Oldenburgh, the secretary, thus 
spake of the Plague, in a letter, dated from the College, and ad- 
dressed to the Honourable Robert Boyle, on the 8th of July, 1665: 
— " The sickness is not much spread as yet in the City, God be 
praised, though it be dangerously scattered. I cannot, from any 
information I can learn of it, judge what its cause should be, but 
it seems to proceed only from infection or contagion, and that not 
catched, but from some near approach to some infected person or 
stuff ; nor can I at all imagine it to be in the air ; though yet there 
is one thing which is very differing from what is usual in other hot 
summers, and that is a very great scarcity of flies and insects. I 
know not whether it be universal, but it is here at London most 
manifest. I can hardly imagine, that there is a tenth part of what 
I have seen in other years.'' — Vide Bovle's Works," vol. vi. 
p. 501 : edit. 1772. 

In respect to the scarcity of insects, thus noticed in the Plague 
year, the very reverse appears to have been the case in 1664. — 
" In the summer before the Plague,'' says Mr. Boghurst, there 
was such a multitude of flies, that they lined the insides of houses, 
nnd if any thread or string did hang down in any place, it was pre- 
sently thick set with flics, like a rope of onions ; and such swarms 
of ants covered the highways, that you might have taken a handful 
at a time." — Sec Appendix, No. I. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



27 



cies : and as others retired really frighted with the 
Distemper, it was a mere desolating of som.e of the 
streets. But the fright was not yet near so great 

; in the City, abstractly so called; and particularly 
because, though they were at first in a *most inex- 

! pressible consternation, yet, as I have observed, that 
the Distemper intermitted often at first, so they were, 
as it were, alarmed, and un-alarmed again, and this 
several times, till it began to be familiar to them; 
and that even when it appeared violent, yet seeing 
it did not presently spread into the City, or the east 
and south parts, the people began to take courage, 
and to be, as I may say, a little hardened. It is true, 
a vast many people fled, as I have observed, yet they 
were chiefly from the west end of the town; and 
from that we call the heart of the City, that is to say, 
among the wealthiest of the people, and such people 
as were unincumbered with trades and business: 
but of the rest, the generahty stayed, and seemed to 
abide the worst, so that in the place we call the 
liberties, and in the suburbs, in Southwark, and in 
the east part, such as Wapping, Ratcliff, Stepney, 
Rotherhithe, and the like, the people generally 
stayed, except here and there a few wealthy families 
who, as above, did not depend upon their business. 

It must not be forgotten here, that the City and 
suburbs were prodigiously full of people at the time 
of this Visitation, I mean at the time that it began; 
for though I have hved to see a farther increase, and 
mighty throngs of people settling in London, more 
than ever, yet we had always a notion that the 
numbers of people which, the wars being over, the 
armies disbanded, and the royal family and the 
monarchy being restored, had flocked to London, to 
settle in business, or to depend upon, and attend, the 
Court for rewards of services, preferments, and the 
like, was such, that the town was computed to have 



28 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



in it above a hundred thousand people more than > 
ever it held before ; nay, some took upon them to say l 
it had twice as many, because all the ruined families 1 
of the royal party flocked hither; all the old soldiers 
set up trades here, and abundance of families settled 
here: again, the 'Court brought with them a great i 
flux of pride and new fashions ; all people were grown I 
gay and luxurious; and the joy of the Restoration 
had brought a vast many famiUes to London. 

I often thought, that as Jerusalem was besieged 
by the Romans, w^hen the Jews were assembled 
together to celebrate the Passover, by which means 
an incredible number of people were surprised there, 
who would otherwise have been in other countries,— 
so the Plague entered London, when an incredible 
increase of people had happened occasionally by the 
particular circumstances above named. As this con- 
flux of the people to a youthful and gay Court made 
a great trade in the City, especially in everything 
that belonged to fashion and finery, so it drew, by 
consequence, a great number of workmen, manu- 
facturers, and the like, being mostly poor people, 
who depended upon their labour; and I remember, 
in particular, that in a representation to my Lord 
Mayor of the condition of the poor, it was estimated, 
that there were no less than a hundred thousand 
riband- weavers in and about the City*; the chiefest 

* This must certainly be a very gross exaggeration ; for even in 
the year 1800, the returns of the Population in the above district 
(including men, women, and children,) amounted to 97,284 persons 
only. At the last enumeration in 1831, the numbers stood thus l 
In St. Leonard's, Shoreditch , . 68,564 
Stepney Old Town . . . 33,898 
RatclifF Hamlet . . . 9,741 
St. Mary's Whitechapel . . 30,733 

St. Botolph's, Bishopsgato Without 10,256 
Ciirist Church, Spitalficlds . 17,949 



171,141 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



29 



number of whom lived then in the parishes of Shore- 
ditch, Stepney, jWhitechapel, and Bishopsgate ; 
namely, about Spittlefields ; that is to say, as Spittle- 
fields was then, for it was not so large as now by one 
fifth part. 

By this, however, the number of people in the 
whole may be judged of; and, indeed, I often won- 
dered, that after the prodigious numbers of people 
that went away at first, there was yet so great a 
multitude left as it appeared there was. 

But I must go back again to the beginning of this 
surprising time: — while the fears of the people were 
young, they were increased strangely by several odd 
accidents, v/hich, put altogether, it was really a 
wonder the whole body of the people did not rise as 
one man, and abandon their dv/ellings, leaving the 
place as a space of ground designed by Heaven for an 
Aheldama"^, doomed to be destroyed from the face of 
the earth; and that all that would be found in it 
would perish with it. I shall name but a few of these 
things; but sure they were so many, and so many 
wizards and cunning people propagating them, that 
I have often wondered there were any (women 
especially) left behind. 

In the first place, a blazing Star, or Comet, appeared 
for several months before the Plague; as there did 
the year after another, a little before the [Great] 
Fire. The old women, and the phlegmatic hypochon- 
driac part of the other sex, whom I could almost call 
old women too, remarked (especially afterward, 
though not till both those Judgments were over) 
that those two Comets passed directly over the City, 
and that so very near the houses, that it was plain 
they imported something pecuhar to the City alone : 

* See "St. Matthew's" Gospel, chap, xxvii. verses 6-8 ; and 
the " Acts " of the Apostles, chap. i. verses 18, 19. 



30 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE* 



that tlie Comet before the Pestilence was of a faint^ 
dull^ languid colour, and its motion very heavy^ 
solemn and slow ; but that the Comet before the 
Fire was bright and sparkling, or, as others said, 
flaming, and its motion swift and furious; and that^ 
accordingly, one foretold a heavy Judgment, slow, 
but severe, terrible and frightful, as was the Plague; 
but the other foretold a stroke, sudden, swift, and 
fiery, as the Conflagration was; nay^ so particular 
some people were, that as they looked upon that 
Comet preceding the Fire, they fancied that they not 
only saw it pass swiftly and fiercely, and could 
perceive the motion with their eye, but even [that] 
they heard it ; that it made a rushing mighty noise, 
fierce and terrible, though at a distance, and but 
just perceivable*. 

* Many notices of the above Comets occur in the 1st volume of 
the *' Philosophical Transactions,'' as well as in the writings of 
different astr nomers. That of 1664 was first seen in England 
about the 1 3th of December, and three several accounts of its 
appearance were read at the Meeting of the Royal Society on the 
21st of that month. It was described as being a very great Comet, 
appearing in the south-south-east, with a very long tail extending 
towards the north-west." Its line of motion is reported to have 
been first ascertained 'by Mens. Adrian Auzout, a French Mathe- 
matician, who exhibited an ephemeris of its predicted course, as 
deduced from his own observations : — similar and according calcu- 
lations were made by the celebrated Cassini. It came to its peri- 
lielion on the 4 th of December, but was occasionally observed even 
till the 8th of March following. Hevelius, in his " Prodromus 
CometicuSj'' calculated its diameter as being three times larger 
than that of the Earth. The second Comet was noticed in Eng- 
land at the beginning of April, 1665 ; but it had been seen several 
weeks before that time on the Continent. Pepys, on April the 
6th, thus mentions it in his Diary" : — "Great talk of a new 
Comet, which it is certain does appear as bright as the late one at 
the best." Some observations made on it at Vienna, were read at 
a Meeting of the Royal Society on the 12th of April ; on the 24th 
of which month it came to its perihelion. Mons. Auzout, who 
began first to observe it on the 2nd of April, (and to calculate the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



31 



I saw botli these Stars, and I must confess, had 
so much of the common notion of such things in my 

elements of its orbit, remarked, that the circumstances of this 
second Comet were contrary to those of the former in almost every 
particular. " The former Comet," he says, " moved very swifts 
hut this latter rather slow : — that^ contrary to the order of the 
signs, from east to west ; hut this following them from west to 
east : — that, from south to north ; but this from north to south, so 
far as he observed : — that, on the side opposite to the sun, but this, 
on the same side : — that, in its perigee in the time of its opposi- 
tion ; this, out of the time of its conjunction." He observed, also, 
*'that both the body and train of the latter Comet were much 
more bright and vivid than the former one'\* 

It is impossible not to trace, in the above remarks of Mons. 
Auzout, the very source and origin of De Foe's account of the 
respective characters of the two Comets ; but here, as on other 
occasions, for the purpose of heightening the interest of his relation, 
he has not scrupled to deviate from the exact truth, at least, in one 
instance ; namely, that of assigaing the apparently slow motion of 
the second Comet to the first of those bodies which appeared, and 
which M, Auzout had described as the one that moved " very swift." 
His imaginary description, however, of the apparent motions of these 
Comets, connected as it is with the dire calamities of Plague and 
Fire which occurred so soon after their appearance, is drawn up 
with, an almost appalling force. It is a vivid picture ; it exhibits 
both the malignancy of the Pestilence, and the voracity and 
destructiveness of the Conflagration. 

That the appearance of the Comets was associated with the belief 
that they were portents of misfortune and suffering is historically 
true. Burnet remarks ("History of his Own Times,'' vol. i., 
p. 218, edit. 1724), that A great Comet, which appeared in the 
winter of 1664, raised the apprehensions of those, who did not enter 
into just speculations concerniug those matters — and that the 
Plague, which breaking out in London so soon after, swept away 
about an hundred thousand souls, and scattered all the inhabitants 
that were able to remove themselves elsewhere, did dishearten all 
people." 

The "Intelligencer," No. 3, contains some observations on the 
first Comet or Blazing Star," dated Tenbury, Worcestershire, 
Jan. 2, 1664-5,— stating the apparent diameter of the Star to be 



* See The Philosophical Transactions," abridged, vol. i. p 1^ , 
edit. 1809. 



32 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

head, that I was apt to look upon them as the fore- 
runners and Tvarnmgs of God's judgments; and 
especially when, after the Plague had followed the 
first, I yet saw another of the like kind, I could not 
but sav, God has not ret sufficiently scourged the 
City. 

But I could not at the same time carry these things 
to the height that others did, knowing too, that 
natural causes are assigned by the astronomers for 
such things ; and that their motions, and even their 
revolutions, are calculated, or pretended to be calcu- 
lated, so that they cannot be so perfectly called the 
forerunners, or foretellers, much less the procurers 

not much above six digits, and that it had a blazing tail pointed 
N.E. by E. seemiDg to the eye about five or six feet loLg. la a 
letter from Venice, Dec. 26, this Comet is said to have been teen 
^^for a matter of a Vy-eek, every morning from about one o'clock till 
tvv-o or three," half a foot in diameter, \s-itb a tail or stream issuing 
from it, of at least six yards in apparent length. 

The portentous character of Comets seems to have been one 
of the most ancient and vridely-prevailing among popular supersti- 
tions. Soetonius mentions a blazing Star, seen by the Ronz^cns 
shortly after the assassination of Julius Csesar, and supposed to be 
connected ^-ith that event. William of Malmesbury says, that 
the Comet M-hich appeared in 1060, was regarded a prognostic of 
the Xorman Conquest. The notion that Comets portended plague, 
wars, and famine, is strongly advocated by Du Bartas, a French 
poet of the sixteenth century, ^vhose poem on the Divine Week 
and AVorks," was translated into English by Joshua Sylvester, in 
the reign of James the First. In all ages, indeed, the supposed 
malignancy of Cometary influences has excited alarm and terror ; 
and been constantly the theme of deprecative aspirations. Its 
destructive agency has been thus specified by one of our elder 
poets : — 

And lo ! portentous gleams the Blazing Star, 

Threatening the world with Famine, Plague, and War : — 

To Princes death ; to Kingdoms many crosses ; 

To all Estates inevitable losses ; 

To Herdsmen rot ; to Ploughman hapless seasons ; 

To Sailors storms ; to Cities civil treasons." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



33 



of such events, as pestilence, war, fire, and the 
like. 

But let my thoughts, and the thoughts of the phi- 
losophers, be, or have been, what they will, these 
things had a more than ordinary influence upon the 
minds of the common people, and they had almost 
universal melancholy apprehensions of some dreadful 
calamity and judgment coming upon tlie City ; and 
this principally from the sight of this Comet and 
of the alarm that was given in December by two 
people dying at St. Giles's, as above. 

The apprehensions of the people were likewise 
strangely increased by the error of the times ; in 
which, I think, the people, from what principle I 
cannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies, 
and astrological conjurations, dreams, and old wives' 
tales, than ever they were before or since, '^^hether 
this unhappy temper was originally raised by the 

* It would have been more coirect to have said "these Comets," 
as it is evident, from the preceding note, that both were seen prior 
to any considerable extension of the Pestilence. Of the first Comet, 
of which De Foe is speaking, the subjoined notices occur in Pepys's 
" Diary." Under the date December 17th, 1664, he says, *• Mighty 
talk there is of this Comet, that is seen a'nights, and the King and 
Queene did sit up last night to see it, and did, it seems ; and to- 
night I thought to have done so too; but it is cloudy, and so no stars 
appear." On the 21stj he remarks, " My Lord Sandwich this day 
writes me word that he hath seen, at Portsmouth, the Comet, and 
says it is the most extraordinary thing he ever saw." Three days 
afterwards he made this entry : — " I saw the Comet, which is now, 
whether worn away or no I know not, but appears not with a tail, 
but only is larger and duller than any other star, and is come to rise 
betimes, and to make a great arch, and is gone quite to a new place 
in the heavens than it was in before." Under March 1st, 1664-5, 
he writes thus : — To Gresham College, where Mr. Hooke read 
a second very curious lecture about the late Comet; amongst other 
things proving, very probably, that this is the very same Comet that 
appeared before, in the year 1618; and that in such a time pro- 
bably, it will appear again, which is a very new opinion ; but all 
will be in print," 

D 



34 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



follies of some people wlio got money by it, that is to 
say, by printing predictions and prognostications, I 
know not; but certain it is, books frighted tbem 
terribly; such as Lilly's Almanack, Gadbury's As- 
trological Predictions ; Poor Robin's Almanack, and 
the like ; also several pretended religious books ; one 
entitled,—" Come out of her, my People, lest you be 
partaker of her Plagues ; " — another, called, — " Fair 
Warning ; " — another, — Britain' s Remembrancer ; " 
and many such ; all, or most part of which, foretold, 
directly or covertly, the ruin of the City. Nay, some 
were so enthusiastically bold as to run about the 
streets, with their oral predictions, pretending they 
were sent to preach to the city; and one, in parti- 
cular, who, like Jonah to Nineveh, cried in the 
streets, — " Yet forty days and London shall he 
destroyed — I will not be positive whether he said, 
"Yet, forty days," or "Yet, a few days." Another 
ran about naked, except a pair of drawers about his 
waist, crymg day and night, like a man that Jose- 
phus mentions, who cried, "Woe to Jerusalem ! " a 
little before the destruction of that city * ; — so this ; 

* The occurrence alluded to by De Foe, is a very extraordiuary ^ 
one ; and it will probably add to the interest of his own narrative to ^ 
give it at length from the original authority. Among the omens ^ 
which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, by Titus, Josephus men- ^ 
tions, — A Comet, like a sword, which hung over the city a whole ^ 
year; a light seen by night around the altar; the preternatural birth of ^ 
a lamb from a cow ; the spontaneous opening of the brazen gates of 
the Temple; chariots, and bands of armed men, appearing in the air ; J 
and a voice heard by night (in the Temple, on the day of Pentecost), J 
as if of a multitude, exclaiming, * We will depart hence.' — *^But/' . 
says the historian, what was more terrible than all, one Jesus, the ' 
son of Ananus, a mean rustic, four years before the commencement 
of the war, while the city was tranquil, and there was abundance of 
all things, when he came to the festival, during which it was the . 
custom to place against the Temple tabernacles in honour of God, 
he began to cry aloud, * A voice from the East, a voice from the 
Westf a voice from the four Wind's; a voice against Jerusalem 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



35 



poor naked Creature cried, " the Great and the 
Dreadful God I " and said no more, but repeated 
those words continually, with a voice and counte- 
nance full of horror, a swift pace, and nobody could 
ever find him to stop, or rest, or take any sustenance, 
at least, that ever I could hear of. I met this poor 
Creature several times in the streets, and would have 
spoken to him, but he would not enter into speech 
with me, or any one else, but held on his dismal cries 
continually. 

and the Temple^ a voice against the bridegrooms and brides, a 
voice against the whole people .f* Thus by night, at intervals ex- 
claiming, he took his circuit through all the streets of the city. Some 
of the chiefs of the people, displeased at the ill omen, had the man 
seized and well punished with stripes. But he making no resist- 
ance, nor asking any mercy from his tormentors, continued his 
exclamations in the same words. At length the magistrates, con- 
ceiving that the man was divinely inspired, brought him before the 
Roman President ; and his punishment being repeated till his flesh 
was torn from the bones, he neither shed tears, nor offered prayers; 
but, as well as he could, kept on crying out with a doleful and 
piteous voice, at each stroke of the whip, ' Woe ! woe ! to Jem- 
saleni ! ' Albinus, who was then the Procurator of Judea, inter- 
rogating him — who he was — whence he came -and wherefore 
he said such things 9 — he made no answer whatever. Xor did he 
cease to bewail the fate of the city : so at length Albinus released 
him, concluding that he was deranged. He thus continued to the 
time of the war, not consorting with any of the citizens, nor was he 
ever seen to speak to any one ; but every day, like a herald, he went 
about proclaiming, ^ Woe ! woe ! to Jerusalem ! ' He intreated 
nobody, on the several days when he was beaten ; and he thanked 
not those who gave him food ; his sole response to all being the sad 
prognostigation. He vociferated more especially at the festivals ; 
and after he had done thus for seven years and five months, neither 
was his voice become hoarse, nor did he appear fatigued; until in the 
time of the siege, the appearance of what he had prophesied quieted 
him. For, walking on the walls, again, he cried with a loud voice, 
' Woe to the City ! and Temple, and people ! ' and when he 
came to the conclusion he added, ^Woe, also, to Myself! ' Being 
that instant struck by a stone discharged from a Balista, he fell, 
uttering the ominous words with his last breath.^' — Opera Josephi, 
edit, a Hudson, vol. ii. b. vi. ch. 5, sect. 3. 

D 2 



36 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



These things terrified the people to the last degree; 
and especially when two or three times^ as I have 
mentioned already, they found one or two in the 
Bills, dead of the Plague at St. Giles's 

Next to these public things v/ere the dreams of ' 
old Women, or, I should say, the interpretation of ' 
old Women upon other people's dreams; and these ^ 
put abundance of people even out of their wits. ! 
Some heard voices warning them to be gone, for that 
there would be such a Plague in London so that the 
living would not be able to bury the dead; others 
sav/ apparitions in the air ; — and I must be allowed 
to say of both, I hope without breach of charity, that 
they heard voices that never spake, and saw sights 
that never appeared : but the imagination of the 
people was really turned wayward and possessed ; 
and no wonder if they who were poring continually 
at the clouds saw shapes and figures, representations 
and appearances, which had nothing in them but air 
and vapour, tiere, they told us they saw a flaming 
sword held in a hand, coming out of a cloud, with a 
point hanging directly over the city. There, they 
saw hearses and coffins in the air, carrying to be 
buried. And there again, heaps of dead bodies lying 
unburied, and the like, just as the imagination of the 
poor terrified people furnished them with matter to 
work upon. 

So Hypochondriac fancies represent 
Ships, Armies, Battles, in the firmament ; 
Till steady eyes the exhalations solve, 
And all to its first matter, Cloud, resolve." 

I could fill this account with the strange Relations 
such people gave every day, of what they had seen ; 

* St. Giles's; St. Andrew's, Ilolborn ; and St. Clement's Danes, 
were the P.irislics most afflicted with the Pliigue, until the end of 
.Tune, when it became very general in the out-parishes. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



37 



and every one was so positive of their having seen 
what they pretended to see that there was no contra- 
dicting them without breach of friendship^ or being 
accounted rude and unmannerly on the one hand, 
and profane and impenetrable on the other. One 
time, before the Plague was begun, (otherwise than, 
as I have said, in St. Giles's,) I think it was in March, 
seeing a crowd of people in the street, I joined them 
to satisfy my curiosity, and found them all staring up 
into the air, to see what a Woman told them appeared 
plain to her, which was '^an Angel clothed in white, 
with a fiery sword in his hand, waving it, or brand- 
ishing it over his head'' She described every part 
of the figure to the life ; showed them the motion, 
and the form ; and the poor people came into it so 

* De Foe, who made little scruple of borrowing from the labours 
of his predecessors, may possibly have derived some of his aerial 
portents from Simon Goulart, an old French writer, who, amidst 
accounts of " Divers Apparitions in the Air," indicative of impend- 
ing calamities, gives the following relation : On the 29 th of March, 
1545, about eight o'clock in the morning, there fell in the neigh- 
bourhood of Cracow, a thunder-bolt, with a clap of thunder so 
violent as seemed to shake all Poland. Immediately there appeared 
in the heavens three red crosses, between which was a man com- 
pletely armed, holding a flaming svvord, and combating an army, 
which he defeated. Thereupon followed a horrible Dragon, which 
swallowed up the victorious combatant ; and upon this the heavens 
opened, as if on fire, and was thus beheld for the space of a full 
hour. Next there appeared three Rainbows, with their accustomed 
colours, on the highest of which was the figure of an Angela as 
usually represented, in the shape of a youth with wings at the 
shoulders ; holding the Sun in one hand and the Moon in the other. 
This second spectacle having continued half an hour, in the presence 
of all who chose to look at it, some clouds then arose, which covered 
these apparitions." See ** Histoires Admirables et Memorables de 
nostre Temps, recueilles, &c., par Simon Goulart. Paris, 1603. 
12mo. fol. 42." Goulart seems to have derived this portion of his 
miscellany of blended fact and fiction from the treatise of Conrad 
Lycosthenes, De Prodigiis et Ostentis ; " to which, indeed, he 
refers. 



38 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



eagerly, and with so mucli readiness; — ^^Yes, I see 
it all plainly/' says one; there is the sword as plain 
as can be/' Another saw the Angel. One saw his 
very face, and cried out, ^^'^►Miat a glorious creature 
he was ! " One saw one thing, and one another. I 
looked as earnestly as the rest, hut perhaps not with 
so much willingness to he imposed upon, and I said, 
indeed, '^^That I could see notJiing but a white cloud, 
bright on one side, by the shining of the sun upon 
the other part." The Woman endeayoured to shew 
it me, but could not make me confess that I saw it, 
which, indeed, if I had, I must haye hed. But the 
Woman turning upon me, looked in my face, and 
fancied I laughed ; in which her imagination deceiyed 
her too ; for I really did not laugh, but was yeiy seri- 
ously reflecting how the poor people were terrified by 
the force of their own imagination. Howeyer, she 
turned from me, called me ''profane fellow," and ''a 
scoffer ;" told me, '' that it was a time of God's anger, 
and dreadful judgments were approaching ; and that 
despisers, such as 1, should wonder and perish,"' 

The people about her seemed disgusted as well as 
she ; and I found there was no persuading them that 
I did not laugh at them, and that I should be rather 
mobbed by them, than be able to undeceiye them : so 
I left them ; and this appearance passed for as real as 
the Blazing Star itself. 

Another encounter I had, in the open day also ; 
aud this was in going through a narrow passage from 
Petty-France into Bishopsgate church-yard, by a 
row of alms-houses. There are two church-yards to 
Bishopsgate church, or parish ; one we go oyer to 
pass from the place called Petty-France into Bishops- 
gate street, coming out just by the church door ; the 
other is on the side of the narrow passage where 
the alms-houses are on the left ; and a dwarf wall 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



39 



with a palisado on it, on the right hand ; and the 
city wall on the other side, more to the right. 

In this narrow passage stands [stood] a Man look- 
ing through between the palisadoes into the burying 
place ; and as many people as the narrowness of 
the passage would admit to stop, without hindering 
the passing of others; and he was talking mighty 
eagerly to them, and pointing now to one place, and 
then to another, and affirming that he saw a Ghost 
walking upon such a gravestone there : he described 
the shape, the posture, and the movement of it so 
exactly, that it was the greatest matter of amaze- 
ment to him in the world that every body did not 
see it as well as he. On a sudden he would cry, 
" There it is — Now it comes this way then, 'Tis 
turned hack:'' till at length he persuaded the people 
into so firm a belief of it, that one fancied he saw it, 
and another fancied he saw it ; and thus he came 
every day making a strange hubbub, considering it 
was in so narrow a passage, till Bishop sgate clock 
struck eleven; and then the Ghost would seem to 
start, and, as if he were called away, disappear on a 
sudden. 

I looked earnestly every way, and at the very 
moment that this Man directed, but could not see 
the least appearance of anything ; but so positive was 
this poor Man, that he gave the people the vapours 
in abundance, and sent them away trembling and 
frighted ; till at length, few people that knew of it, 
cared to go through that passage, and hardly anybody 
by night, on any account whatever 

^ However our common sense may be shocked at these by-gone 
gross instances of credulity and superstition commixed, the triumph 
of modern discernment is not always so complete as may be imagined. 
It was only a very few years since, that our newspapers noticed the 
congregation of nightly crowds to see an apparition in the churchyard 
of Christchurch, Blackfriars Road ! 



40 



MEMOIRS or THE PLAGUE. 



This Ghost, as the poor Man affirmed, made signs 
to the houses, and to the ground, and to the people; 
plainly mtimating, or else they so understanding it, 
that abundance of the people should come to be 
bui'ied in that church-yard; as, indeed, happened. 
But that he saw such aspects, I must acknoT^ledge, 
I never beheved ; nor could I see anything of it 
myself, though I looked most earnestly to see it, if 
possible. 

These things serve to shoTV, how far the people 
were really overcome with delusions ; and as tliey had 
a notion of the approach of a Visitation, all tlieir 
predictions ran upon a most dreadful Plague, which 
should lay the whole City, and even the Kingdom, 
w^aste; and should destroy almost all the nation, both 
man and beast. 

To this, as I said before, the Astrologers added 
stories of the conjunctions of planets m a mahgnant 
manner, and with a mischievous influence ; one of 
which conjunctions was to happen, and did happen, in 
October, and the other in November; and they filled 
the people's heads with predictions on these signs of 
the heavens, intimating, that those conjunctions fore- 
told drought, famine, and pestilence ^. In the first 

* In Lilly's Astrological Predictions,'' published in 1648, is 
A?i Astrological Judgment of the Conjunction Saiurn and 
Mars, wherein occurs the following remarkable passage ; the full 
value of which the believers in Judicial Astrology will doubtless 
appreciate. " In the year 1656," says ourauthor, the Aphelium 
of Mars, who is the generall Significator of England, will be in 
Virgo, which is assuredly the ascendant of the English Moiiarchy^ 
but Aries of the Kingdom : when this Absis, therefore, of Mars 
shall appear in Virgo, who shall expect less than a strange Cata- 
strophe of Human affairs in this Commonwealth, Monarchy, and 
Kingdom of England ? — There will then, either in or about these 
times, or neer that year, or within ten years more or lesse of that 
time, or within a little time after, appear in this Kingdom so strange 
a Revolution of State, so grand a Catastrophe and gi'eat mutation 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



41 



two of them, however, they were entirely mistaken, 
for we had no droughty season, but in the beginning 
of the year a hard frost, which lasted from December 
almost to March: and after that, moderate weather, 
rather warm than hot, with refreshing winds, and in 
short, very seasonable weather: and also several very 
great rains 

Some endeavours were used to suppress the print- 
ing of such books as terrified the people, and to 

unto this monarchy and Government, as never yet appeared ; — of 
which, as the times now stand, I have no liberty or encouragement 
to deliver my opinion : Only it will be ominous to London, unto 
her Merchants at Sea, to her traffique at land^ to her poor, to 
her rich, to all sorts of people inhabiting in her or her Liber- 
ties^ by reason of sundry Fires and a consuming Plague^^ &c. 
See *' Astro. Predic.'' p. 41. — The notable indecision with which 
Lilly has marked the time for the occurrence of these events, will 
not escape the attention of the intelligent reader» 

Charles II. himself, is known not to have been free from astro- 
logical credulity. He had, also, been flattered into the belief, 
that he possessed the virtue of curing the King^s Evil ; and the 
following Advertisement on that subject appeared in the Intelli- 
gencer" of April 24th, when the Court had begun to take alarm 
at the spreading of the Infection, viz. : — " This is to give notice, 
That his Majesty hath declared his positive resolution not to heal 
any more after the end of this present April until Michaelmas next. 
And this is published to the end that all Persons concerned may 
take notice thereof, and not receive a disappointment." Similar 
announcements were issued in the two following years, namely, — 
That the King would not touch for the Evil, till the heats were 
over." 

* In this De Foe is incorrect. — -Dr. Baynard, an eminent Physi- 
cian of that day, has remarked in his " Observations on the Season," 
&c., that " there was such a general calm and serenity of weather, 
as if both wind and rain had been expelled the kingdom ;" and that 
" for many weeks together he could not discover the least breath of 
wind, not even so much as to move a fane ; and the fires in the 
streets with great difficulty were made to burn, through the great 
scarcity of nitre [oxygen?] in the air ; and by the extreme rarefac- 
tion thereof the birds did pant for breath, especially those of the 
larger sort, who were likewise observed to fly more heavily than 
usual/' — See, also, " Appendix," No. I. 



42 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



frighten the dispersers of them, some of whom were 
taken up, but nothing [farther] was done in it as I 
am informed ; the Government being unwiHing to 
exasperate the people, who were, as I may say, all 
out of their wits already. 

Neither can I acquit those Ministers that, in their 
sermons, rather sunk, than lifted up the hearts of 
their hearers ; many of them, no doubt, did it for the 
strengthening the resolution of the people, and espe- 
cially for quickening them to repentance : but it 
certainly answered not their end, at least, not in 
proportion to the injury it did another way; and, 
indeed, as God himself, through the whole Scrip- 
tures, rather draws to him by inyitations, and calls 
to turn to him and hve, than drives us by terror and 
amazements; so, I must confess, I thought the Minis- 
ters should have done also, imitating our blessed Lord 
and Master in this, that his whole gospel is full of 
declarations from heaven of God's mercy, and his 
readiness to receive penitents, and forgive them ; 
complaining, Ye ivill not come unto me, that ye may 
Tiave life;'' and that, therefore, his gospel is called 
the gospel of peace, and the gospel of grace. 

But we had some good men, and that of all per- 
suasions and opinions, whose discourses were full of 
terror ; who spoke nothing but dismal things ; and 
as they brought the people together T\ith a kind of 
horror, sent them away in tears, prophespng nothing 
but evil tidings ; terrifpng the people with the ap- 
prehensions of being utterly destroyed, not guiding 
them, at least not enough, to cry to Heaven for mercy. 

It was, indeed, a time of very unhappy breaches 
among us in matters of religion. Innumerable sects, 
and divisions, and separate opinions, prevailed among 
the people ; the Church of England was restored, 
indeed, with the restoration of the monarchy, about 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



43 



i four years before ; but the ministers and preachers 
' of the Presbyterians, and Independents, and of all 
the other sorts of Professions, had begun to gather 
separate societies, and erect altar against altar, and 
all those had their meetings for worship apart, as 
they hare novr, but not so many then, the Dissenters 
being not thoroughly fonned into a body as they are 
since ; and those congregations which were thus 
gathered together were yet but few ; and even those 
that were, the Government did not allow, but endea- 
voured to suppress them, and shut up their meetings. 

But the Visitation reconciled them again, at least 
for a time, and many of the best and most valuable 
ministers and preachers of the Dissenters were suf- 
fered to go into the churches where the incumbents 
were fled away, as many were, not being able to 
stand it ; and the people flocked without distinction 
to hear them preach, not much inquiiing who, or 
what opinion they were of; but after the sickness 
was over, that spirit of charity abated, and eYery 
church being again supplied with its own ministers, 
or others presented, where the minister was dead, 
things retui'ned to their old channel again ^. 

* TVe derive the following information from the Rev. Thos. Yin- 
cent's remarkable tract, intituled "God's Terrible Voice in the City.'' 
— The Citizens, Tfhen under the dreadful and deplorable circum- 
stances to Avhich the Plague had reduced them, and in the greatest 
want of Spiritual Guides, were forsaken bv their Parochial Ministers; 
and the people, crowding into eternity, (bewailing the want of spiri- 
tual assistance,) the Non-conformist Ministers, considering their great 
obligations to God, and indispensable duty in this dreadful Visitation 
to their fellow-citizens, were induced, though contrary to Law, to 
repair to the deserted Church-pulpits ; whither the people, without 
distinction of Church and Dissenters, joyfully resorted. The 
concourse, on those occasions, was so exceedingly great, that the 
Ministers were frequently obliged to clamber over the pews to get at 
the pulpits, and if ever preaching had a better effect than ordinary, 
it was at this time ; for the people did as eagerly catch at the 



44 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



One miscliief always introduces another. These 
terrors and apprehensions of the people led them into 
a thousand weak, foohsh, and wicked things^ which 
there wanted not a sort of people, really wicked, to 
encourage them to; and this was running about to 
fortune-tellers, cunning men, and astrologers, to 
know their fortune, or, as it is vulgarly expressed, to 
have their fortunes told them, their nativities calcu- 
lated and the like ; and this folly presently made the 
town swarm with a vricked generation of Pretenders 
to Magic, to the Black Art, as they called it, and I 
know not what ; nay, to a thousand worse deahngs 
with the Devil than they were really guilty of ; and 
this trade grew so open, and was so generally prac- 
tised, that it became common to have signs and 
inscriptions set up at doors; — " Here hves a Fortune- 
teller," — ^^Here lives an Astrologer," — ^^Here you 
may have your Nativity calculated," — and the hke ; 
and Friar Bacon* s Brazen Head, which was the 
usual sign of these people's dwellings, was to be seen 
almost in every street, or else the sign of Mother 
Shipton, or of Merlin s head, and the hke*. 

Word as a drowning man at a rope," and with the same fervour aa 
if their eternal happiness had thereon depended. — Mr. Vincent was 
a Non-conformist Minister, and of some note in his day ; he was 
one of those ministers that weathered the pestilential storm. 

* Amongst natural causes," says Dr. Hodges, (in his Letter 
to a Person of Quality,") the conjunctions of some Planets, 
Eclipses, Comets, and such like appearances in the Heavens, are by 
many accused as the authors of the Plague ; and upon this account, 
some addicted to Astrology, observing such appearances the fore- 
going years, have confidently asserted that our Pest was the issue 
of those malevolent influences.^' 

Dryden thus alludes to the malignant influence of the Comets, in 
his Annus Mirabilis,^ verse 291 : — 
The utmost malice of the stars is past, 

And two dire Comets which have scourged the town 
In their own Plague and Fire have breathed their last, 
Or dimly in their sinking sockets frown." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



45 



With what blind, absurd, and ridiculous stuff, 
these Oracles of the Devil pleased and satisfied the 
people I really know not ; but certain it is, that 
innumerable attendants crowded about their doors 
every day ; and if but a grave fellow in a Telvet 
jacket, a band, and a black cloak, which was the 
habit those quack conjurors generally went in, was 
but seen in the streets, the people would follow them 
in crowds, and ask them questions as they went 
along. 

I need not mention what a horrid delusion this 
was, or what it tended to ; but there was no remedy 
for it till the Plague itself put an end to it all, and 
I supposed cleared the town of most of those calcu- 
lators themselves. One mischief was, that if the 
poor people asked these mock astrologers whether 
there would be a Plague, or no ? they all agreed in 
the general to answer " Tes ; for that kept up their 
trade : and had the people not been kept in a fright 
about that, the wizards would presently have been 
rendered useless, and their craft had been at an end. 
But they always talked to them of such and such 
influences of the stars, of the conjunctions of such 
and such planets, which must necessarily bring sick- 
ness and distempers, and consequently the Plague;" 
and some had the assurance to tell them, the Plague 

In the same poem (verses 267, 268) he thus speaks of the 
Infection, in the Supplication which King Charles is supposed to 
address to the Almighty, to stay the progress of the Conflagration: — 
*' O let it he enough what thou hast done ; 

When spotted deaths ran armed through every street, 
AVith poisoned darts, which not the good could shun, 

The speedy could out- fly, or valiant meet. 
The living few, and frequent funerals then, 

Proclaimed thy wrath on this forsaken place ; 
And now those few, who are returned again, 

Thy searching judments to their dwellings trace.'* 



46 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



was begun already, which was too true, though they ! 
that said so knew nothing of the matter. , 

The ministers, to do them justice, and preachers 
of most sorts, that were serious and understanding | 
persons, thundered against these, and other wicked 
practices, and exposed the folly as well as the 
wickedness of them together ; and the most sober 
and judicious people despised and abhorred them. 
But it was impossible to make any impression upon 
the middling people, and the working labouring 
poor ; their fears were predominant over all their 
passions, and they threw away their money in a 
most distracted manner upon those whimsies. Maid- 
servants especially, and men-servants, were the chief 
of their customers ; and their question generally 
was, after the first demand of " Will there he a 
Plague V — I say the next question was, " Oli, Sir ! 
for the Lord's saJce tohat will hecome of me ? Will 
my mistress keep me, or will she iurii me off 1 Will 
she stay here, or loill she go into the country ? And 
if she goes into the country, loill she taJce me with 
her] or leave me here to be starved and undone ? " 
And the like of men-servants. 

The truth is, the case of poor servants was very 
dismal, as I shall have occasion to mention again by- 
and-by ; for it was apparent, a prodigious number of 
them would be turned away, and it was so ; and of 
them abundance perished ; and particularly of those 
that these false prophets had flattered with hopes 
that they should be continued in their services, and 
carried with their masters and mistresses into the 
country : and had not public charity provided for 
these poor creatures, whose number was exceeding 
great, — and in all cases of this nature it must be 
so, — they would have been in the worst condition of 
any people in the city. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



47 



Tbese tilings agitated the minds of the common 
people for many months, Tvhile the first apprehensions 
were npon them, and while the Plague was not, as 
I may say, yet broken out. But I must also not 
forget that the most serious part of the inhabitants 
behaved after another mamier. The Government 
encouraged their devotion, and appointed public 
prayers, and days of fasting and humihation, to make 
pubhc confession of Sin, and implore the mercy of 
God to avert the di-eadful Judgment which hung 
over their heads ; and it is not to be expressed with 
what alacrity the people of all persuasions embraced 
the occasion ; how they flocked to the churches and 
meetings, and they were all so thronged that there 
was often no coming near, no, not to the very doors 
of the largest chiu-ches. Also, there were daily 
prayers appointed morning and evening at several 
churches, and days of private praying at other 
places; at all which the people attended, I say, 
with an uncommon devotion. Several private famihes 
also, as well of one opinion as another, kept family 
fasts, to which they admitted their near relations 
only ; so that, in a word, those people who were 
really serious and rehgious applied themselves in a 
truly Christian maimer to the proper work of repent- 
ance and humihation, as a Christian people ought 
to do. 

Again, the pubhc showed that they would bear 
their share in these things. The very Court, which 
was then gay and luxurious, put on a face of just 
concern for the pubhc danger " . All the plays and 

* Pepys gives many instances of the reckless profligacy vrhich 
the Court exhibited, as well in the years immediately preceding the 
Plague, as after its cessation. — In April 1665, he mentions, that 
the Xoon-hall, within Whitehall, '* was now turned to a house of 
Playing." — Diary ^ vol. ii. 



48 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



interludes which, after the manner of the French 
courts had heen set up, and began to increase among 
us, were forbidden to be acted : the gaming tables, 
public dancing rooms, and music houses, which had 
multiplied, and began to debauch the manners of 
the people, were shut up and suppressed ; and the 
jack-puddings, merry-andrews, puppet-shows, rope- 
dancers, and such like doings^ which had beT^itched 
the poor common people, shut up their shops, finding, 
indeed, no trade, for the minds of the people were 
agitated with other things ; and a kind of sadness 
and horror at these things sat upon the countenances 
even of the common people. Death was before their 
eyes, and everybody began to think of their graves, 
not of mirth and diversions. 

But even those wholesome reflections, — which, 
rightly managed, would have most happily led the 
people to fall upon their knees, make confession of 
their sins, and look up to their merciful Saviour for 
pardon, imploring his compassion on them in such a 
time of their distress, by which we might have 
become as a second Nineveh, — had a quite contraiy 
effect on the common people : who, ignorant and 
stupid in their reflections, as they were brutishly 
Tricked and thoughtless before, were now led by 
their fright to extremes of folly ; and as I have said 
before, they ran to conjurors and witches and all 
sorts of deceivers, to know what should become of 
them ; who fed their fears, and kept them always 
alarmed and awake, on purpose to delude them, 
and ]oick their pockets. So, they were as mad 
upon running after quacks and mountebanks, and 
every practising old woman, for medicines and reme- 
dies ; storing themselves with such multitudes of 
pills, potions, and presen atives, as they were called, 
that they not only spent their money, but even 



49 



I poisoned themselTes beforeliancl, for fear of the poison 
of the infection, and prepared their bodies for the 
Plague, instead of preserving them against it. On 

, the other hand, it is incredible, and scarce to be ima- 
gined, how the posts of houses and corners of streets 
were plastered over with doctor's bills, and papers of 
ignorant fellows quacking and tampering in physic, 
inviting the people to come to them for remedies; 
which [invitation] was generally set off with such 
flourishes as these, viz. — Infallible preventive 
PILLS against the Plague, — ^Never-failing pre- 
servatives against the infection, — Sovereign 
CORDIALS against the corruption of the air, — Exact 
regulations for the conduct of the body in case of 
an infection, —Anti-pestilential pills, — Incom- 
parable DRINK against the Plague, never found 
out before, — An Universal remedy for the Plague, 
— The Only true plague water*, — The Royal 
antidote against all kinds of infection; and such 
a nimiber more that I cannot reckon up; and if I 
could, it would fill a book of themselves to set them 
down. 

Others set up bills to summon people to their 
( lodgings for directions and advice in the case of 
I infection : these had specious titles also, such as 
these : — 

An eminent pigh-Dutch Pliysician, newly come over from 
Holland, where he resided during all the time of the gTeat 
Plague, last year, in Amsterdam, and cured multitudes of 
people that actually had the Plague upon them. 

An Italian Gentlewoman, just arrived from Naples, having 
a choice Secret to prevent Infection, which she found out 
by her great experience, and did wonderful cures with it 

* Pepys says, under the date of July 19 : " Walked to RedrifFe, 
I where I hear the sickaess is, and, indeed, it is scattered almost 
I everywhere. My Lady Carteret did this day give me a bottle of 
Plague Water home with me.^^— Diary. 

E 



50 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



in the late Plague tliere^ wherein there died 20^000 in one 
day. 

An ancient Gentlewoman ha^-ing practised with great suc- 
cess in the late Plague in this city, Anno 1636. gives 
her Ad\ice onlv to the Female sex. To be spoken with, 
&c. 

An experienced Physician, who has long studied the Doctrine 
of Antidotes against all sorts of poison and infection, has, 
after forty years' practice, arrived to such skill as may, 
^^dth God's blessing, direct Persons how to prevent then* 
being touched by any contagious distemper whatsoever. 
He dii'ects the Poor gratis. 

I take notice of these by wav of specimen. I 
could give you two or three dozen of the hke. and 
yet haye abundance left behind. 'Tis sufficient from 
these to apprise any one of the humour of those times ; 
and how a set of thieves and pick-pockets not only 
robbed and cheated the poor people of their money, 
but poisoned their bodies with odious and fatal pre- 
parations ; some with mercury, and some with other 
things as bad, perfectly remote from the thing pre- 
tended to ; and rather hurtful than ser^siceable to 
the body, in case an infection followed*. 

^ It may not be UQacceptable to tbe reader to see a few other 
examples of the quack advertisements of that period : — for instance, 
In the " Newes," Xos. 38, and 42, (May the 18th, and June the 
15th) were the following : — 

Coustanline Khodocanacei§, Grecian, hath at a small price, that 
admirable preservative against the Plague, wherewith Hippo- 
crates, the Prince of all Physicians, preserved the whole land 
of Greece, &c. &c. To be had in London, next door to the 
Three Kings Inn, in Southampton Buildings, near the King's 
Gate in Holborn. 

One Dr. Stephanas Chrysolitus, a famous physician, lately 
arrived in these parts, having travelled in several countries 
infected with the Plague, hath found by experience to be very 
beneficial (by the blessing of God,) for preventing the infec- 
tion thereof, to eat Raisins of the Sun in the morning fasting, 
and Malaga Raisins, either baked or boiled : and this he hath 
published for the Public good. 

In the *^ Intelligencer," No. 49, (June 24th,) A preparation 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



51 



I cannot omit a Subtlety of one of those quack 
operators, with which he gulled the poor people to 
crowd about him, but did nothing for them without 
Money. He had, it seems, added to his bills which 
he gaye about the streets, this adyertisement in 
capital letters, yiz. — He Giyss ADyiCE to the poor. 

FOR NOTHING. 

Abundance of poor people came to him accordingly, 
to whom he made a great many fine speeches, exa- 
mined them of the state of their health, and of the 
constitution of their bodies, and told them many 
good things for them to do, which were of no great 
moment: but the issue and conclusion of all was, 
that he had a preparation which, if they took such 
a quantity of, eyery morning, he would pawn his 
life they should neyer haye the Plague, — no, though 
they hyed in the house with people that were 
infected. This made the people all resolye to haye 
it ; but then the price of that was so much, I think 
'twas half a crown. '^But, sir,^^ says one poor woman, 

1 am a poor alms-woman, and am kept by the 
parish, and your bills say, you giye the poor your 
help for nothing." ^^Ay, good woman," says the 



called Spiritus Antiloimoides, or an antidote against the 
Plague, was advertised as selling at Amen Corner, under the 
authority of the College of Physicians. 
In the " Necessary Directions" (cited before) issued by the Col- 
lege of Physicians in 1665, the following is announced as 
" The Plague-water of Mathius, or Aqua Epidemica," 
namely : — Take the roots of Tormentil, Angelica, Peony, 
Zedoarie, Liquorish, Elecampane, of each half an ounce, the 
leaves of Sage, Scordium, Celandine, Rue, Rosemary, Worm- 
wood, Ros Solis, Mugwort, Burnet, Dragons, Scabious, Agri- 
\ mony, Baum, Carduus, Betony, Centery the less, Marjgolds 
I . leaves and flowers, of each one handful : Let them all be 
' cut, bruised, and infused three days in eight pints of White- 
wine, in the moneth of May, and distilled." 

E 2 

I 



52 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



doctor, ^^so I do, as I published there: I give my 
advice to the poor for nothing, but not my physic ! " 
'^ Alas, sir/' says she, that is a snare laid for the 
poor then; for you give them your advice for nothing, 
that is to say, you advise them gratis, to buy your 
physic for their money, so does every shopkeeper 
with his vrares." Here the woman began to give 
him ill words, and stood at his door ail that day, 
telling her tale to all the people that came, till the 
doctor, finding she turned away his customers, was 
obliged to call her up stairs again, and give her his 
box of physic for nothing, —which, perhaps too, was 
^ood for nothing when she had it. 

But to return to the people, whose confusions 
fitted them to be imposed upon by all sorts of pre- 
tenders, and by every mountebank. There is no 
doubt but these quacking sorts of fellows raised great 
gains out of the miserable people; for we daily found 
the crowds that ran after them were infinitely greater, 
and their doors were more thronged than those of 
Dr. Brooks, Dr. Upton, Br. Hodges, Br, BerwicJc, 
or any, though the most famous men of the time; 
and I was told that some of them got five pounds a 
day by their physic* 

But there was still another madness beyond all 
this, which may serve to give an idea of the dis- 
tracted humour of the poor people at that time; and 
this was their following a worse sort of deceivers 
than any of the above; for these petty thieves only 



* One of the boldest attempts to profit by the credulity of the 
Public during the occurrence of the Plague, was made by James 
Angler, Esq., who soems to have actually obtained the sanction of 
the Government in support of a scheme for Disinfecting Houses, said 
to have been tried at Paris, Lyons, ToiiJouse, and in other Cities. 
See advertisement alleged to be published by order of Lord Arling- 
ton, Principal Secretary of State, in the **Newe8," No. 50. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



53 



deluded them to pick tlieir pockets^ and get their 
money, in which their wickedness, whatever it was, 
lay chiefly on the side of the deceiver's deceiving, not 
upon the deceived: — hut in this part I am going to 
mention, it lay chiefly in the people deceived, or 
equally in both; and this was in wearing charms, 
philters, exorcisms, amulets, and I know not what 
preparations, to fortify the body with them against 
the Plague; as if the Plague was not the Hand of 
God, but a kind of possession of an E^il Spirit; and 
that it was to be kept off with crossings, signs of the 
zodiac, papers tied up with so many knots, and 
certain words or figures written on them, as parti- 
cularly the word abracadabra,* formed in triangle, 
or pyramid, thus:^ — 



ABRACADABRA 
ABRACADABR 
ABRACADAB 
ABRACADA 
ABRACAD 
ABRACA 
ABRAC 
ABRA 
ABR 
AB 
A 



Others had the Jesuits' 
Mark in a Cross: 
I H 
S 



Others nothing but this 
Mark, thus: 




* This mysterious word whicb, written as above, was regarded 
as a talisman, or charm, of wonderful power, is said to have been 
the name of a Syrian God ; whose aid was considered to be invoked 
by the wearers of the amulet. It originated in the superstitions of 
a very remote period, and was recommended as an antidote by 
Serenus Sammonicus, a Roman Physician, who lived in the early 
part of the third century, in the reigns of the emperors Severus and 
Caracalla. Its efficacy was reputed to be most powerful in agues 
and other disorders of a febrile kind, and particularly against the 
fever called by the physicians HemitritcBUS, 



54 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I might spend a great deal of time in my excla- 
mations against tlie follies, and, indeed, wickedness 
of those things, in a time of such danger, in a matter 
of such consequences as this of a National Infection, 
But my memorandums of these things relate rather 
to take notice only of the fact, and mention only that 
it was so. How the poor people found the insuffi- 
ciency of those things, and how many of them were 
afterwards carried away in the Dead-carts, and I 
thrown into the common Graves of every parish, with 
these hellish charms and trumpery hanging ahout 
their necks, remains to be spoken of as we go along. 

All this was the effect of the hurry the people were 
in, after the first notion of the Plague being at hand 
was among them; and which may be said to be from 
about Michaelmas, 1664, but more particularly after 
the two men died in St. Giles's, in the beginning 
of December ; and again, after another alarm, in 
February : for when the Plague evidently spread 
itself, they soon began to see the folly of trusting to 
those unperforming creatures, who had gulled them 
of their money; and then their fears worked another 
way, namely, to amazement and stupidity, not know- 
ing what course to take, jaor what to do, either to help 
or relieve themselves ; but they ran about from one 
neighbour's house to another, and even in the streets 
from one door to another, with repeated cries of^ 
Lord have mercy upon us, what shall we do 

Indeed, the poor people were to be pitied in one 
particular thing, in which they had little or no relief, 
and which I desire to mention with a serious awe and 
reflection, which, perhaps, every one that reads this 
may not relish ; namely, that whereas Death now 
began not, as we may say, to hover over every one's 
head only, but to look into their houses and chambers, 
and stare in their faces; though there might be some 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGrE. 55 

stupidity and dulness of the mind, and there v>-as so, 

a great deal; vet there was a great deal of just alarm, 

sounded in the very inmost soul, if I may so sai/, of 

others. Many consciences were awakened ; many 

hard hearts melted into tears : and many a Denitent 

' »/ J. 

confession was made of crimes long concealed. It 
would haye wounded the soul of any Christian to 
haye heard the dpng groans of many a despairing 
creature; and none durst come near to comfort them. 
Many a robbery, many a murder, was then confessed 
aloud, and nobody suniying to record the accounts of 
it. People might be heard, eyen in the streets as we 
passed along, calling upon God for mercy, through 
Jesus Christ, and saying, ''I haye been a thief, — I 
haye been an adulterer, — I haye been a murderer," 
— and the like; and none durst stop to make the 
least inquiry into such things, or to administer com- 
fort to the poor creatures, that in the anguish both 
of soul and body thus cried out. Some of the 
ministers did yisit the sick at first, and for a little 
while, but it was not to be done; it would haye been 
present Death to haye gone into some houses. The 
yery buryers of the dead, who were the most hardened 
creatures in town, were sometimes beaten back, and 
so terrified, that they durst not go into the houses 
where whole families were swept away together, and 
where the circumstances were more particularly hor- 
rible, as some were; but this was, indeed, at the first 
heat of the Distemper. 

Time inured them to it all ; and they yentured 
eyerywhere afterwards without hesitation, as I shall 
haye occasion to mention at large hereafter. 

I am supposing now the Plague to be begun, as I 
haye said, and that the Magistrates began to take the 
condition of the people into their serious consi- 
deration. What they did as to the regulation of 



56 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



iiiliabitants and of infected families. I shall speak to 
by itself ; but as to tbe affair of Healrh, it is proper 
to mention it here : that having seen the loolisli 
liumonr of the people in running after qnacks and 
mount- ijaiiks, v;izards, and isjrtune-tellers i^liich 
they did as above, even to rnadn^r v f Lord ?vIaTor, 
a Terr sober and rehgious ^ . .^_.ai. appointed 
Physicians and Surgeons for rehei of ilo: |: : jr ; I 
mean, the diseased poor * ; and, in partic^ilar. c rdeied 
the College of Physicians to pnbhsh Directions for 
cheap remedies lov the poor, in all circumstances of 
the Distemper-'-. This, mdeed, was one of the most 
charitable and judicious things that could be done at 
that time : for this drove the people from hatmring 
the doors of u'o:-:t disperser of bills; and frrm taking 
doTvn blindly, and -^vithout consideration. Poison tor 
Physic, and Death irrstead of Life. 

This Direction of the Physicians was done by a 
consultation of the whole College ; and, as it was 
particularly calculated for the use of th- p::or= and 
for cheap medicines, it was made pubiio, so that 
everybody might see it : and copies were given gratis 
to all that desired it. But as it is public, and to be 



* The Lord Mayor here spoken of was Sir Jchn Lawrfxce, 
•whom Pope has eulogised, and -whom the impressive 1 .Lguage of 
Darwin has characterised as one who, 

" When Contagion, with mephitic breath, 

And iciihered Famine urged the n'ork of Death, 

With food and faith, with medicine and with prayer^ 
Raised the weak head, and stayed the parting sigh, 
Or with new life relumed the swimming eye." 

LoTFs OF THE Pl-'.xts, Canto IL 
+ This is erroneous. The remedies suggested by the College of 
Physicians were drawn up (as staled in a previous note, p. 1-t,) 
under the orders of a Committee of Privy Council. A copy of the 
** Direciions"' issued by ibe College, will be found in a" CoileCic-n 
of Scarce Pieces relating to the Plague," 8vo, 1721. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



57 



seen on all occasions, I need not give tlie reader of 
this the tronhle of it. 

I shall not be supposed to lessen the anthoritv or 
capacity of the Physicians when I say that the 
violence of the Distemper, Tvhen it came to its ex- 
tremity, was like the Fire the next year. The Fire 
which consumed what the Plague could not touch, 
defied all the apphcation of remedies ; the fire- 
engines were broken, the buckets thrown away, and 
the power of man was batlied and brought to an end: 
so the Plague defied all medicines ; the very Phy- 
sicians were seized with it, with their preservatives 
in their mouths ; and men went about prescribing to 
others, and telhng them what to do, till the tokens 
were upon them, and they dropped down dead, 
destroyed by that very enemy they directed others 
to oppose. This was the case of several Physicians, 
even some of them the most eminent ^, and of 



* Dr. Hodges states, that there wanted not the help of very great 
and worthy persons who Yoluntarily contributed their assistance in 
the dangerous work of restraining the progress of the Infection; 
and he enumerates the learned Dr. Gibson, Regius Professor at 
Cambridge ; Dr. Francis Glisson ; Dr. Nathaniel Paget ; Dr. 
Peter Berwick ; Dr. Humphrey Brookes, &c. Of those persons, he 
remai'ks, eight or nine fell in the attempt, among whom was Dr. 
Wm. Conyers, to whose goodness and humanity he bears the most 
honourable testimony. 

Among the other Physicians who suffered from the Plague, was 
Dr. Burnet, of Fenchuich Street. His dwelling was one of the 
first within the walls which was visited by the Infection. Pepys, 
under date of June 10th, thus mentions it. '* In the evening 
home to supper, and there to my great trouble, hear that the 
Plague is come into the City (though it hath these three or four 
weeks, since its beginning, been wholly out of the City) ; but where 
should it begin but in my good friend and neighbours, Dr. Bur- 
net's house, in Fenchurch Street, which in both points troubles 
me mightily." On the following day. he wrote : — " I saw poor 
Dr. Burnet's door shut : but he hath, I hear, gained great good- 
will among his neighbours; for he discovered it himself first, and 



58 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



several of the most skilful surgeons. Abundance of 
quacks too died^ wlio had the folly to trust to then- 
own medicmes which, they must needs be conscious 
to themselves, were good for nothing ; and who 
rather ought, like other sorts of thieves, to have ran 



caused himself to be shut up of his own accord : which was very 
handsome." 

The goodwill here spoken of was, unhappily, but of short con- 
tinuance ; for a rumour became current that the Doctor had killed 
his servant, and he thence found it necessary to vindicate his 
character by a public notice, or placard, at the Royal Exchange ; a 
copy of which is here given from the " Intelligencer," No. 55, 
together with some introductory remarks by the editor, Sir Roger, 
L' Estrange. 

** I think it but an honest and necessary office," says the knight, 

to make some mention of Dr. Burnet, M.D., whose house it has 
pleased Almighty God to visit with the Plague ; and of that dis- 
ease one of his servants died : w^hereupon a most unchristian and 
scandalous report was raised, that the said Doctor had murthered 
his man ; without any other ground in the world, than the malice 
of the first contriver. But I find that yesterday, this unhappy 
gentleman caused to be fixed upon the Royal Exchange, London, 
his own vindication, in these very words following : — 

" ' Whereas some person or persons have maliciously forged and 
published that abominable falsehood, viz. that I, Alex. Burnet, of 
St. Gabriel Fenchurch, London, Dr. in Physic, did kill my servant, 
William Passon, and was committed to Newgate for it, — I do, by 
these presents, upon the Royal Exchange, London, post him or them 
for forgery who have invented and vented that wicked report : It 
being declared under the hand and seal of Mr. Nath. Upton, Master 
of the Pesthouse, London, who searched the body of the said Wm. 
Passon, that he dyed of the Plague, and had a pestilential Bubo in 
bis right groin and two blains in his right thigh. — July 14, 1665. 

Alex. Burnet, M.D.' " 

We may hope that this sufficed to arrest the calumny, and 
restore to the Doctor his good name. But alas ! his days were 
already numbered, and neither detraction nor praise was of long 
avail. " This day," says Pepys, under the date of August 25th, 
" I am told that Dr. Burnet, my Physician, is this morning dead 
of the Plague ; which is strange, his man dying so long ago, and his 
liouso this month open again. Now himself dead. Poor unfortu- 
nate man ! " 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



59 



away, sensible of their guilt, from the justice tliat 
they could not but expect sbould punish them, as 
they kncTV they had deserved. 

Xot that it is any derogation from the labour, or 
application of the Physicians, to say they fell in the 
common calamity : nor is it so intended by me ; it 
rather is to their praise, that they yentured their 
lives so far as. even to lose them in the service of 
mankind. They endeavoured to do good, and to 
save the hves of others ; but we were not to expect 
that the Physicians could stop God's Judgments, or 
prevent a Distemper, eminently armed from Heaven, 
from executing the errand it was sent about. 

Doubtless, the Physicians assisted many by their 
skill, and by their prudence and applications, to the 
saving of their lives, and restoring their health ; but 
it is not lessening their character, or their skill, to 
say, they could not cure those that had the tokens 
upon them, or those who were mortally infected before 
the Physicians were sent for, as was frequently the case. 

It remains to mention now what public measures 
were taken by the Magistrates for the general safety, 
and to prevent the spreading of the Distemper when 
it first broke out. I shall have frequent occasion to 
speak of the prudence of the Magistrates, their 
charity, their vigilance for the poor, and for pre- 
serving good order, furnishing provisions, and the 
like, when the Plague was increased, as it afterwards 
was. But I am now upon the Order and Regulations 
they published for the government of infected families. 

I mentioned above, shutting of houses up; and 
it is needful to say something particularly to that; 
for this part of the history of the Plague is very me- 
lancholy; hut the most grievous story must he told. 

About June, the Lord Mayor of London, and the 
court of Aldermen, as I have said, began more par- 



60 



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ticularly to concern tliemselves for the regulation of 
the City. 

The Justices of Peace for Middlesex, by direction 
of the Secretary of State, had begun to shut up 
houses in the parishes of St. Giles in the Fields, St. 
Martin, St. Clement Danes, &c., and it was with 
good success ; for in several streets where the Plague 
broke out, upon strict guarding the houses that were 
infected, and taking care to bury those that died 
immediately after they were known to be dead, the 
Plague ceased in those streets. It was also observed, 
that the Plague decreased sooner in those parishes, 
than it did in the parishes of Bishopsgate, Shore- 
ditch, Aldgate, Whitechapel, Stepney, and others ; 
the early care taken in that manner being a great 
means to the putting a check to it. 

This shutting up of Houses was a method first 
taken, as I understand, in the Plague which hap- 
pened in 1603, at the coming of King James the 
First to the crown, and the power of shutting 
people up in their own houses was granted by Act 
of Parliament, entitled, — " An Act for the charitable 
Relief and Ordering of Persons infected with the 
Plague." On which Act of Parliament, the Lord 
Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, founded 
the Orders they made at this time, and which took 
place the first of July, 1665, when the numbers 
infected within the City were but few, the last Bill 
for the ninety-seven parishes being but four; — and 
some houses having been shut up in the City, and 
some people being removed to the Pest-house be- 
yond Bunhill-fields, in the way to Islington*; I say, 

* This Pest-house was situated on the spot now called Pest- 
hovse row, (which was built about the year 1737,) nrar the west 
end of St. Luke's Hospital, in Old Street. It belonged to the City, 
and included many tenements. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



61 



by these means, when there died near one thousand 
a week in the whole, the number in the City was 
but twenty- eight; and the City was preserved more 
healthy in proportion, than any other place, all the 
time of the Infection. 

These Orders of my Lord Mayor's were pubhshed 
the latter end of June, and took place from the 
first of July, and were as follow, \dz.: — 

Orders conceived and published by the Lord 
Mayor and xIldermen of the City of London, 
concerning the Infection of the Plague, 1665. 

"Whereas in the Reign of our late Sovereign, King James, 
of happy memory, an Act was made for the charitable 
Relief and ordering of persons infected with the Plague : 
whereby authority was given to justices of the Peace, 
Mayors, Bailiffs, and other head ouicers, to appoint within 
their several limits, Examiners, Searchers, Watchmen, 
Keepers, and Buriers, for the persons and places infected, 
and to minister unto them oaths for the performance of 
theu" offices. And the same Statute did also authorise the 
giving of other directions, as unto them for the present 
necessity should seem good in then- discretions. It is 
now, upon special consideration, thought very expedient 
for preventing and avoiding of Infection of sicimess 
(if it shaU so please Almighty God), that these officers 
following be appointed, and these orders hereafter duly 
observed." 

E.vaminers to be appointed in Every Parish. 
" First, it is thought requisite, and so ordered, that in every 
parish there be one, two, or more persons of good sort and 
credit, chosen and appointed by the Alderman, his Deputy, 
and Common Council of every ward, by the name of 
Examiners, to continue in that of&ce the space of two 
months at least ; and if any fit person, so appointed, shall 
refuse to undertake the same, the said parties so refusing, 
to be committed to prison until they shall conform them- 
selves accordingly." 

The Ejcarniner'^s Office. 
" That these Examiners be sworn by the Aldermen, to in- 
quire and learn from time to time what Houses in every 
parish be visited, and what persons be sick, and of v/liat 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



diseases, as near as they can inform themselves ; and upon 
doubt in that case, to command restraint of access, until it 
appear what the disease shall prove : and if they find any 
person sick of the Infection, to give order to the Constable 
that the house be shut up ; and if the Constable shall be 
found remiss or negligent, to give present notice thereof 
to the AldeiTnau of the Wai^d/' 

JVafch/nen. 

^' That to every infected house there be appomted two "Watch- 
men ; one for every day. and the other for the night ; and 
that these Watchmen have a special care that no person 
go in or out of such infected Houses, whereof they have 
the charge, upon pain of severe pimishment. And the 
said AVatchmento do such further offices as the sick House 
-shall need and require : and if the Watchman be sent upon 
any businesSj to lock up the House, and take the key ^vith 
him : and tlie Watchman by day to attend until ten of the 
clock at night ; and the Y>'atcliman by night until six in 
the morning."' 

Searchers. 

That there be a special cai^e to appoint Women-searchers 
m every parish, such as are of honest reputation, and of 
the best sort as can be got in this kind : and these to be 
sworn to make due search, and true report to the utmost 
of their knowledge, whether the persons whose bodies they 
are appointed to search, do die of the Infection, or of what 
other diseases, as near as they can. And that the Physicians, 
who shall be appointed for cure and prevention of the In- 
fection, do call before them the said Searchers, who ai^e 
or shall be appointed for the several parishes under their 
respective Cares, to the end they may consider whether 
they are fitly qualified for that employment ; and change 
them from time to time, as they shall see cause, if they 
appear defective in their duties. 

That no Searcher, during this time of Visitation, be per- 
mitted to use any public work or employment, or keep 
any shop or stall, or be employed as a laundress, or in 
any other common emplo^Tneut whatsoever."' 

Chii'urgeons. 

* For better assistance of the Searchers, for as much as 
there hath been heretofore great abuse in mis-reporting 
the di.sease, to the fuinher spreading of the Infection ; it 
is, therefore, ordered, that there be chosen and appointed 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



63 



able and discreet Chirurgeons, besides those that do ah^eady 
belong to the Pest-house ; amongst whom the City and 
liberties to be quartered as the places lie most apt and 
convenient ; and every of these to have one quarter for 
his limit ; and the said Chirurgeons in every of their limits 
to j oin with the Searchers for the view of the body, to the 
end there may be a true report made of the disease. 
" And further, that the said Chirurgeons shall visit and 
search such like persons as shall either send for them, or 
be named and dn-ected unto them, by the Examiners of 
every parish, and inform themselves of the disease of the 
said parties. 

" And, forasmuch as the said Chirurgeons are to be seques- 
tered from all other Cures, and kept only to this disease of 
the Infection : it is ordered, that every of the said Chirur- 
geons shall have twelve-pence a body searched by them, to 
be paid out of the goods of the party searched, if he be 
able, or otlierwise by the parish. 

Nurse-Beepers. 

" If any Nurse-keeper shall remove herself out of any in- 
fected house before twenty-eight days after the decease of 
any person dying of the Infection, the house to which the 
said Nm-se-keeper doth so remove herself shall be shut up 
until the said twenty-eight days be expii'ed." 



Orders concerning infected Houses and Persons 
sick of the Plague. 

Notice to he given of the Sickness. 
The Master of every house, as soon as any one in his 
house complaineth either of botch, or purple, or swelling, 
in any part of his body, or falleth otherwise dangerously 
sick, without apparent cause of some other disease, shall 
give knowledge thereof to the Examiner of health, within 
two hours after the said sign shall appear." 

Sequestration of the SicJc. 
" As soon as any man shall be found by this Examiner, 
Chirurgeon, or Searcher, to be sick of the Plague, he shall 
the same night be sequestered in the same house ; and in 
case he be so sequestered, then, though he afterwards die 
not, the house wherein he sickened shall be shut up for a 
month, after the use of the due Preservatives taken by 
the rest." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Airing the Stuff. 
For Sequestration of the goods and stuff of the Infected, 
their bedding, and apparel, and hangings of chambers, 
must be well aired with fire, and such perfumes as are 
requisite within the infected house, before they be taken 
again to use : this to be done by the appointment of the 
Examiner." 

Sliutting up of the House. 
' If any Person shall have visited any man, known to be 
infected of the Plague, or entered willingly into ary kno^n 
infected House, being not allowed : the house wherein he 
inhabiteth shall be shut up for certain days by the Exa- 
miner's direction." 

None to he removed out of Infected Houses, hut, d:c. 
' Item, That none be removed out of the house where he 
falleth sick of the Infection, into any house in the City, 
(except it be to the Pest-house, or a tent, or unto some 
such house, which the owner of the said visited house 
holdeth in his own hands, and occupieth by his own 
servants,) and so as security be given to the parish, 
whither such remove is made, that the attendance and 
charge about the said visited persons shall be observed 
and charged in all the particularities before expressed, 
without any cost of that parish, to which any such re- 
move shall happen to be made, and this remove to be done 
by night. And it shall be lawful to any person that hath 
two houses, to remove either his sound or his infected 
people to his spare house at his choice, so as if he send 
away first his sound, he not after send thither the sick, 
nor again unto the sick the sound. And that the same 
which he sendeth, be for one week at the least shut up, 
and secluded from company, for fear of some infection, at 
the first not appearing." 

Burial of the Bead. 
That the Burial of the Dead by this Visitation be at most 
convenient hours, always either before sun-rising, or after 
sun-setting, with the privity of the Church-wardens or 
Constables, and not otherwise ; and that no neighbours 
nor friends be suffered to accompany the corpse to church, 
or to enter the house visited, upon pain of having his 
house shut up, or being imprisoned. 

And that no Corpse dying of Infection shall be buried, or 
remain in any Church in time of common prayer, sermon, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



65 



or lecture. And that no cliildren be suffered at time of 
burial of any corpse in any church, church-yard, or 
burpng-place, to come near the corpse, coffin, or grave. 
And that all the graves shall be at least six feet deep. 
And further, all public assemblies at other burials are to 
be forborne dui'ing the continuance of this Visitation.'' 

No Infected Stun to he Uttered. 
That no clothes, stuff, bedding, or garments, be suffered 
to be carried or conveyed out of any infected houses, and 
that the criers and carriers abroad of bedding or old 
apparel to be sold or pawned, be utterly prohibited and 
restrained ; and no brokers of bedding or old apparel be 
permitted to make any outward shew, or hang forth on 
their stalls, shopboards, or windows, towards any street, 
lane, common way, or passage, any old bedding or ap- 
parel to be sold, upon pain of imprisonment. And if any 
broker or other person shall buy any bedding, apparel, or 
other stuff, out of any infected house, •within two months 
after the Infection hath been there, his house shall be 
shut up as infected, and so shall continue shut up twenty 
days at the least."' 

Xo Person to he conveyed out of c.ny Infected. House. 
If any Person ^-isited do forttme, by neghgent looking 
unto, or by any other means, to come, or be conveyed 
from a place infected, to any other place, the parish from 
whence such party hath come or iDeen conveyed, upon 
notice thereof given, shall, at their charge, cause the said 
party so visited, and escaped, to be carried and brought 
back again by night, and the parties in this case offending 
to be punished at the du^ection of the Alderman of the 
Ward ; and the house of the Receiver of such visited 
Person to be shut up for twenty days." 

Every Visited House to he MarJced. 
That every house visited be marked T\-ith a Red Cross of 
a foot long, in the middle of the door, evident to be seen, 
and with these usual printed words, that is to say, 
^ Lord have mercy upon us,' to be set close over the 
same Cross, there to continue until lawful opening of the 
same house." 

Every Visited House to he Watched. 
That the Constables see every house shut up, and to be 
attended with Watchmen, which may keep them in, and 



66 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



minister necessaries unto them at tlieii' ov,tl charges (if 
they be able), or at the common charge if they be unable : 
the shutting up to be for the space of fo^Ji' weeks after all 
be whole. 

That precise order be taken that the Searchers, Chirui^- 
geons, Keepers, and Buryers, are not to pass the streets 
vdthout holding a Red Rod, or Wand, of tlii^ee foot iu 
length, in their hands, open, and evident to be seen, and 
are not to go into any other house than into their owHj or 
into that whereunto they are directed or sent for ; but to 
forbear and abstain from company, especially when they 
have been lately used in any such business or attendance." 

Inmates. 

" That where several Inmates are in one and the same 
house, and any person in that house happens to be infected, 
no other person or family of such house shall be suffered 
to remove him or themselves without a certificate from 
the Examiners of health of that parish ; or in default 
thereof, the house whither he or they so remove, shall be 
shut u-p as in case of Visitation.'' 

HacJcney Coaches. 

" That care be taken of Hackney-coachmen, that they may 
not (as some of them have been observed to do), after 
carrying of infected persons to the Pest-house, and other 
places, be admitted to common use, till their coaches be 
well aired, and have stood unemployed by the space of five 
or six days after such service." 

Orders for cleansing, and keeping of the Streets 
sweet. 

Tlie Streets to he 'kept dean. 
First, it is thought necessary, and so ordered, that every 
Householder do cause the street to be daily pared before 
his door, and so to keep it clean swept all the^week long." 

That Ro.lcers take it from out the Houses. 

" That the sweeping and filth of houses be daily earned 
away by the Rakers, and that tlie Raker shall give notice 
of his coming by the blowing of a horn, as hitherto hath 
been done." 

Laystalls to he made far off from the City. 

" That the Laystalls be removed as far as may be out of the 
city, and common passages, and that no Nightman or other 
be suffered to empty a vault into any garden near about 
the city." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGXTE. 



67 



Care to le had of UnwJiolesome Fisli or Flesh, and of Musty 
Corn. 

" That special care be taken that no stinking Fish, or un- 
wholesome Flesh, or musty Corn, or other corrupt fruits, 
of what sort soever, be suffered to be sold about the city, 
or any part of the same. 

" That the Brewers and Tippling-houses be looked unto, for 
musty and unwholesome casks. 

" That no hogs, dogs, or cats, or tame pigeons, or conies, be 
suffered to be kept T\itliin any part of the city, or any 
swine to be, or stray in the streets or lanes, but that such 
swine be impounded by the beadle, or any other officer, 
and the owner punished according to Act of Common- 
council, and that the dogs be killed by the dog-killers 
appointed for that purpose." 

Orders concerning loose Persons and idle 
Assemblies. 
Beggars. ^ 
" Forasmuch as nothing is more complained of than the 
multitudes of Rogues and wandering Beggars that swann 
in every place about the city, being a great cause of the 
spreading of the Infection, and ^^*ill not be avoided, not- 
■^ithstanding any order that have been given to the con- 
trarv' ; it is therefore now ordered, that such Constables, 
and others, whom this matter may any v%'ay concern, do 
take special care that no wandering Beggars be suffered 
in the streets of this city, in any fashion or manner what- 
soever, upon the penalty provided by the law, to be duly 
and severely executed upon them." 

Plays, 

" That all Plays, Bear-baitings, Games, singing of Ballads, 
Buckler-play, or such hke causes of Assembhes of People, 
be utterly prohibited, and the parties offending severely 
punished by every Alderman in his Ward." 

Feasting Prohibited. 
"That all public Feasting, and particularly by the Com- 
panies of this City, and Dinners at Taverns, Ale-houses, 
and other places of common Entertainment, be forborne 
till fui'ther order and allowance ; and that the Money 
thereby spared, be preserved and employed for the benefit 
and rehef of the Poor \'isited \^-ith the Infection.'' 



68 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Tijjjjling Houses. 
'•' Tliat disorderly Tippling in Taverns^ Ale-houses. Coftee- 
hoiises, and Cellars, be severely looked unto, as the com- 
mon Sin of this time, and greatest occasion of dispersing 
tlie Plague. And that no company or person he suffered 
to remain or come into any tavern^ ale-house, or cofPee- 
house. to di^ink, after nine of the clock in the evening, 
accordmii' to the ancient Law and Custom of this City, 
upon the penalties ordained in that behalf."" 

And for tlie better execution of tliese Orders, 
and sucli otlier rules and directions as upon farther 
consideration shall be found needful ; it is ordered 
and enjoined, that the Aldermen, Deputies, and 
Common-council men, shall meet together weekly, 
once, twice, thrice, or oftener (as cause shall require), 
at some one general place accustomed in their respec- 
tive Wards (being clear from infection of the Plague) 
to consult how the said Orders may be dulr put in 
execution ; not intending that any, dwelling in or 
near Places infected, shall come to the said Meetings 
whilst their coming may be doubtful. And the said 
Aldermen, and Deputies, and Common-council men, 
in their several Wards, may put in execution any 
other good Orders that by them at their said Meet- 
ings shall be conceived and devised, for preservation 
of His ^Majesty's subjects from the Infection." 

Sir John Lawrence, Lord Mayor. 
Sir George YvAtermax, 1 ^.j . 
Sir Charles Doe, \ '^^^^^'i^'- 

I need not say, that these Orders extended only to 
such places as were Tvithin the Lord ^Mayor's juris- 
diction : so it is recjuisite to observe, that the Justices 
of the Peace, \\ithin those parishes and places as 
were called the hamlets and out-parts, took the same 
method. As I remember, the Orders for shuttins; 
up of Houses did not take place so soon on our side, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



69 



because, as I said before, the Plague did not reaeh to 
these eastern parts of the town, at least, nor begin to 
be very violent, till the beginning of August. For 
example, the whole Bill, from the 11th to the 18th 
of July, was 1761, yet there died but seventy-one of 
the Plague in all those parishes we call the Tower- 
Hamlets ; and they were as follow : — 



Aldgate 1 4 

Stepney 33 

Whitechapel 21 

St. Kath. Tower 2 

Trin, Minories 1 

71 



34 

the next 58 
week was 48 
thus : 4 
1 

145 



65 

and to the 76 
1st of Aug. 79 
thus : 4 
4 

228 



It was, indeed, coming on amain ; for the burials 
that same week, were in the next adjoining parishes 
thus : — 

St. Len. Shoreditch 64 the next week 84 to the 1st 110 
St. Bot. Bishopsgt. 65 prodigiously m- 105 of Aug. 116 
St. Giles, Crippl. 213 creased : as 421 thus : 554 

342 610 780 

This shutting up of Houses was at first counted 
a very cruel and unchristian method, and the poor 
people so confined made bittei; lamentations^. Com- 



* The practice of shutting np Houses on account of the Plague, 
in 1655, had probably advocates among the Faculty, or we may 
suppose it would not have been adopted. But Sir Jno. Colbatch, 
who when the Nation was alarmed on account of the Plague of 
Marseilles, published " A Scheme for Proper Methods to be taken 
should it please God to visit us with the Plague," in 1721, proposed 
the division of the Metropolis into districts, and the establishment 
of public infirmaries; and "That families of substance who have 
servants and all convenience for cleanliness and everything else, be 
left (when infected), in their own Houses, and even then not 
shut up, only a mark to be set upon them. But that it shall be 
death for any well person to come out of such house without a 
white wand in his hand, to warn all people that he belongs to an 



70 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



plaints of the severity of it were also daily brought 
to my Lord Mayor, of houses causelessly (and some 
maliciously) shut up. I cannot say, but upon in- 
quiry, many that complained so loudly were fomid 
in a condition to be continued ; and others again, 
inspection being made upon the sick person, and the 
sickness not appearing infectious, or if uncertain, yet, 
on his being content to be carried to the Pest-house, 
were released. 

It is true, that the locking up the doors of people's 
houses, and setting a watchman there night and day, 
to prevent their stirring out, or any coming to them; 
when, perhaps, the sound people in the family might 
have escaped, if they had been removed from the 
sick, looked \ery hard and cruel ; and many people 
perished in these miserable confinements, which it is 
reasonable to believe would not have been distem- 
pered if they had had liberty, though the Plague 
was in the house; at which the people were very 
clamorous and uneasy at first, and several violences 
were committed, and injuries offered to the men who 
were set to watch the houses so shut up : also several 
people broke out by force, in many places, as I shall 
obsen-e by-and-by. But it was a pubhc good that 
justified the private 'mischief ; and there was no 
obtaining the least mitigation by any application to 
magistrates, or government, at that time, at least 
that I heard of. This put the people upon all 
manner of stratagem, in order, if possible, to get out; 
and it would fill a little volume to set dovm the arts 
used by the people of such houses to shut the eyes of 

infectfed family." p. 1-4. — See also, Dr. Mead's "Discourse on the 
Plague," p. 35 — 37, and 56, 57. — "A Discourse of the Plague." 
By Geo. Pye. Part IL 1721, chap. ii. ; and a Tract intituled, 
*• The Shutting up of Infected Houses, as it is practised in England, 
soberly debated:" 4to. 1665. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



71 



the watchmen who were employed, to deceive them^ 
and to escape or break out from them, in which 
frequent scuffles, and some mischief, happened ; of 
which, by itself. 

As I went along Houndsditch one morning, about 
eight o'clock, there was a great noise ; it is true, 
indeed, there was not much crowd, because people 
were not very free to gather together, or to stay long 
together, when they were there, nor did I stay long 
there : but the outcry w^as Icud enough to prompt my 
cariosity, and I called to one that looked out of a 
window, and asked what w^as the matter. 

A Watchman, it seems, had been employed to keep 
his post at the door of a house w^hich was infected, 
or said to be infected, and was shut up ; he had been 
there all night for two nights together, as he told his 
story, and the day Watchman had heen there one 
day, and was now come to relieve him. All this 
while no noise had been heard in the house, no light 
had been seen ; they called for nothing, sent him of 
no errands, which used to be the chief business of the 
Watchman ; neither had they given him any disturb- 
ance, as he said, from the Monday afternoon, when 
he heard great crying and screaming in the house, 
which, as he supposed, was occasioned by some of 
the family dying just at that time. It seems, the 
night before, the Dead-cart, as it was called, had 
been stopped there, and a Servant-maid had been 
brought down to the door dead, and the buryers or 
bearers, as they were called, put her into the cart, 
wrapped only in a green rug, and carried her 
away. 

The Watchman had knocked at the door, it seems, 
when he heard that noise and crying, as above, and 
nobody answered a great while ; but at last one 
looked out, and said with an angry quick tone, and 



72 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



yet a kind of crying voice, or a voice of one that was 
crying, What d'ye want, that ye make such a 
knocking?^'' He answered, I am the Watchman I 
how do you do? what is the matter The person 
answered, What is that to you ? Stop the Dead- 
cart.^ ^ This, it seems, was ahout one o'clock: soon 
after, as the fellow said, he stopped the Dead-cart, 
and then knocked again, hut nobody answered : he 
continued knocking, and the bellman called out seve- 
ral times — Bring out your Dead ! " — but nobody 
answered, till the man that drove the cart being 
called to other houses, would stay no longer, and 
drove away. 

The Watchman knew not what to make of all this, 
so he let them alone till the Morning-man, or Day- 
watchman, as they called him, came to relieve him ; 
giving him an account of the particulars, they knocked 
at the door a great while, but nobody answ^ered ; 
and they observed, that the window, or casement, 
at which the person had looked out who had an- 
swered before, continued open, being up two pair 
of stairs. 

Upon this, the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, 
got a long ladder, and one of them went up to the 
window, and looked into the room, where he saw a 
Woman lying dead upon the floor in a dismal man- 
ner, having no clothes on her but her shift ; but 
though he called aloud, and putting in his long staff, 
knocked hard on the floor, yet nobody stirred or 
answered; neither could he hear any noise in the 
house. 

He came down again, upon this, and acquainted 
his fellow, who went up also, and finding it just so, 
they resolved to acquaint either the Lord Mayor or 
some other magistrate of it, but did not offer to go 
in at the window. The magistrate, it seems, upon 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



73 



the information of the two men, ordered the house 
to be broken open, a constable and other persons 
being appointed to be present, that nothing might 
be plundered; and accordingly it was so done, when 
nobody was found in the house but that young Wo- 
man, who, having been infected, and past recovery, 
the rest had left her to die by herself, and were every 
one gone, having found some way to delude the 
Watchman, and to get open the door, or get out at 
some back-door, or over the tops of the houses, so 
that he knew nothing of it ; and as to those cries and 
shrieks which he heard, it was supposed they were 
the passionate cries of the family at the bitter part- 
ing which, to be sure, it was to them all, this being 
the sister to the mistress of the family. The man 
of the house, his wife, several children and servants, 
being all gone and fled, whether sick or sound, that 
I could never learn ; nor, indeed, did I make much 
inquiry after it. 

Many such escapes were made out of infected 
houses, as particularly, when the Watchman was 
sent of some errand, for it was his business to go of 
any errand that the family sent him of, that is to 
say, for necessaries, such as food and physic ; to 
fetch physicians, if they would come, or surgeons, or 
nurses, or to order the Dead- cart and the hke ; but 
with this condition too, that when he went, he was 
to lock up the outer door of the house, and take the 
key away with him. To evade this, and cheat the 
Watchmen, people got two or three keys made to 
their locks : or they found ways to unscrew the locks, 
such as were screwed on, and so take off the lock, 
being in the inside of the house, and while they sent 
away the Watchman to the market, to the bake-house, 
or for one trifle or another, would open the door, and 
go out as often as they pleased. But this being found 



74 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

out, the officers afterwards had orders to padlock up 
the doors on the outside, and place bolts on them as 
they thought fit. 

At another house, as I was informed^ in the street 
next mthin Aldgate, a whole family was shut up and 
locked in, because the maid-serrant was taken sick ; 
the master of the house had complained by his friends 
to the next xllderman, and to the Lord Mayor, and 
had consented to havef the maid carried to the Pest- 
house, but was refused, so the door was marked with 
a Red Cross, a padlock on the outside, as above, and 
a Watchman set to keep the door according to pubhc 
order. 

After the master of the house found there was no 
remedy, but that he, his wife, and his children were 
to be locked up with this poor distempered servant, 
he called to the Watchman, and told him he must 
go then and fetch a nurse for them, to attend this 
poor girl, for that it would be certain death to them 
all to oblige them to nm^se her; and told him plainly, 
that if he would not do this, the maid must perish 
either of the Distemper, or be starved for want of 
food, for he was resolved none of his family should 
go near her, and she lay in the garret, four story 
high, where she could not cry out, or call to anybody 
for help. 

The Watchman consented to that, and went and 
fetched a nurse, as he was appointed, and brought 
her to them the same evening. During this inten-al, 
the master of the house took his opportunity to break 
a large hole through his shop into a bulk or stall, 
where formerly a cobler had sat, before or under his 
shop window, but the tenant, as may be supposed, at 
such a dismal time as that, was dead or removed, and 
so he had the key in his own keeping. Having made 
his way into this stall, which he could not have done 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



75 



if the man had been at the door^ the noise he was 
obhged to make being such as would have alarmed 
the Watchman ; I say, having made his way into 
this stalls he sat still till the Watchman returned 
with the nurse, and all the next day also ; but the 
night follomng having contrived to send the Watch- 
man of another trifling errand^ which, as I take it, 
was to an apothecaiy's for a plaster for the maid, 
which he was to stay for the making up, or some 
other such errand that might secure his staying some 
time ; in that time he conveyed himself and all his 
family out of the house, and left the nurse and the 
Watchman to bury the poor wench ; that is, throw 
her into the cart, and take care of the house. 

I could give a great many such Stories as these, 
diverting enough, which in the long course of that 
dismal year I met with, that is, heard of, and which 
are very certain to be true, or very near the truth ; 
that is to say, true in the general, for no man could 
at such a time learn all the particulars. There was, 
likewise, \'iolence used with the Watchman, as was 
reported, in abundance of places; and, I believe, that 
from the beginning of the Visitation to the end, there 
were not less than eighteen or twenty of them killed, 
or so wounded as to be taken up for dead ; which 
was supposed to be done by the people in the infected 
houses which were shut up, and where they attempted 
to come out, and were opposed. 

Nor, indeed, could less be expected, for there were 
just so many prisons in the town as there were houses 
shut up ; and as the people shut up, or imprisoned so, 
were guilty of no crime, only shut up because miser- 
able, it was really the more intolerable to them. 

It had also this difference, that every prison, as we 
may call it, had but one Jailor, and as he had the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 

whole house to guard, aud that many houses were so 
situated as that they had several ways out, some 
more, some less, and some into several streets ; it 
was impossible for one man so to guard all the pas- 
sages, as to prevent the escape of people made despe- 
rate by the fright of their circumstances, by the 
resentment of their usage, or by the raging of the 
Distemper itself; so that theyVould talk to the 
Watchman on one side of the house, while the family 
made their escape at another. 

For example, in Coleman-street there are abun- 
dance of alleys, as appears still; a house was shut up 
m that they call White' s-alley, and this house had a 
back window, not a door, into a court, which had a 
passage into Bell-alley ; a Watchman was set by the 
Constable at the door of this house, and there he 
stood, or his comrade, night and day, while the family 
went all away in the evening, out at that window 
into the court, and left the poor fellows warding, and 
watching, for near a fortnight. 

Not far from the same place, they blowed up a 
Watchman with gunpowder, and burnt the poor 
fellow dreadfully, and while he made hideous cries, 
and nobody would venture to come near to help him, 
the whole family that were able to stir, got out at 
the windows, one story high : two that were left 
sick, calhng out for help, care was taken to give 
them nurses to look after them; but the persons 
who fled were never found till after the Plague was 
abated, when they returned, but as nothing could be 
proved, so nothing could be done to them. 

It is to be considered too, that as these were prisons 
without bars and bolts, which our common prisons are 
furnished with, so the people let themselves down 
out of their windows, even in the face of the Watch- 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. // 

man, bringing swords or pistols in tlieir hands, and 
threatening the poor wi'etch to shoot him, if he stirred, 
or called for help. 

In other cases, some had gardens, and walls, or 
pales, between them and their neighbours; or yards, 
and back-houses: and these, by friendship and en- 
treaties, would get leave to g^t over those walls or 
pales, and so go out at their neighbours' doors; or by 
giving money to their servants, get them to let them 
through in the night; so that, in short, the shutting 
up of houses was in no wise to be depended upon, 
neither did it answer the end at all ; serving more 
to make the people desperate, and to drive them to 
such extremities, as that they would break out at all 
adventures. 

And that which was still worse, those that did 
thus break out, spread the infection farther by their 
wandering about with the Distemper upon them, in 
their desperate circumstances, than they would other- 
wise have done : for whoever considers all the parti- 
culars in such cases must acknowledge, and we 
cannot doubt but the severity of those confinements 
made many people desperate ; and made them run 
out of their houses at all hazards, and with the 
Plague visibly upon them, not knowing either whither 
to go, or what to do, or, indeed, what they did; and 
many that did so were driven to dreadful exigencies 
and extremities, and perished in the streets or fields 
for mere want, or drojoped down by the raging vio- 
lence of the fever upon them. Others wandered into 
the country, and went forward any way as their 
desperation guided them, not knowing whither they 
went or would go, till faint and tired, and not get- 
ting any relief, (the houses and tillages on the road 
refusing to admit them to lodge, whether infected or 
no,) they have perished by the road side, or gotten 



78 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE . 



into barns and died there, none daring to come to 
tlienij or relieve tliem, thougli perhaps not infected, . 
* for nobody would beheve them.* t 

On the other hand, when the Plague at first seized i 
a family, that is to say, when any one body of the 
family had gone out, and unwarily or otherwise 
catched the Distemper, and brought it home, it was 
certainly known by the family before it was known 
to the officers, who, as you will see by the order,, 
were appointed to examine into the circumstances of 
all sick persons, when they heard of their being sick, i 

In this interval, between their being taken sick, 
and the Examiner's coming, the master of the house 
had leisure and liberty to remove himself, or all his 
family, if he knew whither to go, and many did sq; 
but the great disaster was, that many did thus, after 
they were really infected themselves, and so carried 
the disease into the houses of those who were so 
hospitable as to receive them, which, it must be con- 
fessed, was very cruel and ungrateful. 

And this was, in part, the reason of the general 
notion, or scandal rather, which went about of the 
temper of people infected; namely, that they did not 
take the least care, nor make any scruple of infecting ^ 
others; though I cannot say but there might be some 
truth in it too, but not so general as was reported. 

* A remarkable occurrence, hearing on this subject, is thus related 
in the " Xewes," No. 79 : — " Dorchester, September 23rd. It is a 
peculiar blessing that this town continues yet free from any contagious 
disease ; and the Providence appears the greater in regard of sc 
many persons that have come hither fiom infected places: and, in 
truth, the care and vigilance of our magistrates have been great in 
providing a Convenieucy of houses and accommodation in the fields, 
for persons coming into these parts. Only this week, one coming j 
from London died -within a mile of this town, after four days* 
illness, supposed to be the Plague : but the hovel wherein he lay 
being boarded over and under, a pit was digged, and both hovel and 
corpse were buried together.'* 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 79 

What natural reason could be given for so wicked a 
thing, at a time when they might conclude them- 
selves just going to appear at the bar of Divine Jus- 
tice, I know not. I am very well satisfied that it 
cannot be reconciled to religion and principle, any 
more than it can be to generosity and humanity; but 
I may speak of that again. 

I am speaking now of people made desperate by 
the apprehensions of their being shut up, and their 
breaking out by stratagem or force, either before or 
after they were shut up, whose misery was not less- 
ened when they were out, but sadly increased. On 
the other hand, many that thus got away, had retreats 
to go to, and other houses, where they locked them- 
selves up, and kept hid till the Plague was over ; 
and many families, foreseeing the approach of the 
Distemper, laid up stores of provisions sufficient for 
their whole families, and shut themselves up, and 
that so entirely, that they were neither seen nor heard 
of till the infection was quite ceased, and then came 
abroad sound and well. I might recollect several 
such as these, and give you the particulars of their 
management : for, doubtless, it was the most effectual 
secure step that could be taken for such whose cir- 
cumstances would not admit them to remove, or who 
had not retreats abroad proper for the case; for, in 
being thus shut up, they were as if they had been a 
hundred miles off. Nor do I remember that any one 
of those families miscarried : among these, several 
Dutch merchants were particularly remarkable, who 
kept their houses like little garrisons besieged, suf- 
fering none to go in or out, or come near them ; 
particularly one in a court in Throckmorton-street, 
whose house looked into Drapers' -garden. 

But I come back to the case of families infected, 
and shut up by the Magistrates; the misery of those 



80 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



families is not to be expressed, and it was generally 
in such, houses that we heard the most dismal shrieks 
and outcries of the poor people, terrified and even 
frighted to death, by the sight of the condition of 
their dearest relations, and by the terror of being 
imprisoned as they were, 

I remember (and while I am writing this Story, 
I think I hear the very sound of it) a certain lady 
had an only daughter, a young maiden about nine- 
teen years old, and w^ho was possessed of a very 
considerable fortune; they were only lodgers in the 
house where they were. The young woman, her 
mother, and the maid, had been abroad on some 
occasion, I do not remember what, for the house was 
not shut up ; but about two hours after they came 
home, the young lady complained she was not well; 
in a quarter of an hour more she vomited, and had a 
violent pain in her head. Pray God," says her 
mother, in a terrible fright, my child has not the 
Distemper ! " The pain in her head increasing, her 
mother ordered the bed to be warmed, and resolved 
to put her to bed, and prepared to give her things to 
sweat, which was the ordinary remedy to be taken 
when the first apprehensions of the Distemper began. 

While the bed was airing, the mother undressed 
the young woman, and just as she was laid down 
in bed, she, looking upon her body with a candle, 
immediately discovered the fatal Tokens on the 
inside of her thighs'^. Her mother, not being able to 

* In a conversation at a meeting of the Royal Society, in March, 
1666, Dr. Merret related, that he had been informed by Dr. 
Hodges, (the author of the Loimologia, who during the Plague 
had officiated as one of the City Physicians) that *' the true pesti- 
lential spots, called the Tokens, were a gangrenated flesh of a 
pyramidal figure, penetrating to the very bone, with its basis 
downward, altogether mortified and insensible, though a pin or any 
other sharp body were thrust into it ; and (what the Doctor 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGTJE. 



81 



contain herself, threw down her candle, and shrieked 
out in such a frightful manner, that it was enough to 
place horror upon the stoutest heart in the world; 
nor was it one scream, or one cry; but the fright 
having seized her spirits, she fainted first, then re- 
covered, then ran all over the house, up the stairs and 
down the stairs, like one distracted, and, indeed, she 
really was distracted, and continued screeching and 
crying out for several hours, void of all sense, or at 
least government of her senses, and, as I was told, 
never came thoroughly to herself again. As to the 
young maiden, she was a dead corpse from that 
moment; for the gangrene which occasions the spots 
had spread [through] her whole body, and she died in 
less than two hours: but still the mother continued 
crying out, not knowing anything more of her child, 
several hours after she was dead. It is so lono; ag-o, 
that I am not certain; but I think the mother never 
recovered, but died in two or three weeks after*. 

This was an extraordinary case, and I am there- 
fore the more particular in it, because I came so 
much to the knowledge of it; but there were innu- 
merable such like cases; and it was seldom that the 
weekly Bill came in, but there were two or three 
put in frighted,'^ that is, that may well be called, 

thought particularly remarkable) the next adjoining parts of the 
flesh, though not discoloured, yet mortified as well as the dis- 
coloured ones." — Vide Birch's History of the Royal Society/' 
vol. ii. p. 76. 

* The numbers of those "who died of fright, in six consecutive 
years, as recorded in the Bills of Mortality, \Tere as follows : — 
In 1664 . . 1 In 1667 . . 7 

1665 . . 23 1668 . . 1 

1666 , . 16 1669 . . 1 

It may therefore be assumed that the calamities arising from the 
Plague and Fire in 1665 and 1666, were the main causes of the 
great increase of deaths from fright in those years ♦ 
G 



82 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



frighted to death. But besides those who were so 
frighted as to die upon the spot^ there were great 
numbers frighted to other extremes, some frighted 
out of their senses, some out of their memory, and 
some out of their understanding: but I retum to 
the shutting up of Houses. 

As several people, I say, got out of their houses by 
stratagem after they were shut up, so others got out 
by bribing the "Watchmen, and giving them money to 
let them go privately out in the night. I must con- 
fess, I thought it at that time the most innocent 
corruption, or bribeiy, that any man could be guilty 
of; and therefore could not but pity the poor men. 
and think it was hard when three of those ^'atch- 
men were publicly whipped through the streets for 
suffering people to go out of houses shut up. 

But notwithstanding that severity, money prevailed 
with the poor men, and many famihes found means 
to make salhes out, and escape that way, after they 
had been shut up : but these were generally such as 
had some places to retire to; and though there was 
no easy passing the roads any whither, after the first 
of August, yet there were many ways of retreat, and 
particularly, as I liinted, some got tents, and set them 
up in the fields, carrraig beds, or straw, to lie on, 
and provisions to eat, and so lived in them as heraiits 
in a cell; for nobody would venture to come near 
them, and several stories were told of such; some 
comical, some tragical: some, who hved like wan- 
dering pilgrims in the deserts, escaped by making 
themselves exiles in such a manner as is scarce to be 
credited, and who yet enjoyed more liberty than was 
to be expected in such cases. 

I have by me a story of two brothers and their 
kinsman, who, being single men, but that had stayed 
in the city too long to get away, and, indeed, not 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



83 



knowing where to go to have any retreat, nor having 
wherewith to travel far, took a course for their own 
preservation, which, though in itself at first despe- 
rate, yet was so natural, that it may be wondered 
that no more did so at that time. They were but of 
mean condition, and yet not so very poor as that they 
could not furnish themselves with some little con- 
veniences, such as might serve to keep life and soul 
together; and finding the Distemper increasing in a 
terrible manner, they resolved to shift as well as they 
could, and to be gone. 

One of them had been a Soldier in the late wars, 
and before that in the Low Countries; and having 
been bred to no particular employment but arms, 
and besides, being wounded, and not able to work 
very hard, had for some time been employed at a 
baker's of sea-biscuit in Wapping. 

The brother of this man was a Seaman too, but 
some how or other, had been hurt of one leg, that he 
could not go to sea, but had worked for his living at 
a sail-maker's in Wapping, or thereabouts; and being 
a good husband, had laid up some money, and was 
the richest of the three. 

The third man was a J oiner or Carpenter by trade, 
a handy fellow; and he had no wealth but his basket 
of tools, with the help of which he could at any tim.e 
get his living, such a time as this excepted, wherever 
he went; and he lived near Shadwell. 

They all hved in Stepney parish, which, as I have 
said, being the last that was infected, or at least 
violently, they stayed there till they evidently saw 
the Plague was abating at the west part of the 
town, and coming towards the east where they 
lived. 

j The Story of those three men, if the reader will be 
' content to have me give it in their own persons, 

G 2 

I 



84 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



without taking upon me to either vouch the parti- 
culars, or answer for any mistakes, I shall give as 
distinctly as I can, believing the history will be a 
very good pattern for any poor man to follow, in case 
the like public desolation should happen here * ; and 
if there may be no such occasion, which God of his 
infinite mercy grant us, still the Story may have its 
uses so many ways as that it vdll, I hope, never be 
said, that the relating has been unprofitable. 

I say all this previous to the histor}^, having yet, 
for the present, much more to say before I quit my 
own part. 

I went all the first part of the time freely about 
the streets, though not so freely as to run myself 
into apparent danger, except when they dug the 
great pit in the churchyard of our parish of Aldgate; 
a terrible pit it was, and I could not resist my 
curiosity to go and see it; as near as I may judge, it 
was about forty feet in length, and about fifteen or 
sixteen feet broad; and at the time I first looked at 
it, about nine feet deep; but it was said they dug 
it near twenty feet deep afterwards, in one part of it, 
till they could go no deeper for the water: for they 
had, it seems, dug several large pits before this ; for 
though the Plague was long a coming to our parish, 
yet, when it did come, there was no parish in or 
about London where it raged with such violence 
as in the two parishes of Aldgate and White- 
chapel. 

They had dug several pits in another ground, 
when the distemper began to spread in our parish, 
and especially when the dead-carts began to go 
about, which was not in our parish till the beginning 

* This evidently alludes to the period at which De Foe com- 
piled these ''Memoirs," namely, about 1721, when the direful 
ravages of the Plague at Marseilles had excited a general alarm. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



85 



of August. Into these pits they had put perhaps 
fifty or sixty bodies each; then they made larger holes 
wherein they buried all that the cart brought in a 
week, which, by the middle to the end of August, 
came to from 200 to 400 a week; and they could not 
well dig them larger, because of the order of the 
magistrates, confining them to leave no bodies within 
six feet of the surface; and the water coming on, 
at about seventeen or eighteen feet, they could not 
well, I say, put more in one pit; but now, at the 
beginning of September, the Plague raging in a 
dreadful manner, and the number of burials in our 
parish increasing to more than was ever buried in 
any parish about London of no larger extent, they 
ordered this dreadful gulf to be dug, for such it was, 
rather than a pit. 

They had supposed this pit would have supplied 
them for a month or more, when they dug it, and 
some blamed the church-wardens for suffering such 
a frightful thing, telling them they were making 
preparations to bury the whole parish, and the like; 
but time made it appear, the church-wardens knew^ 
the condition of the parish better than they did; for 
the pit being finished the 4th of September, I think 
they began to bury in it the 6th, and by the 20th, 
which was just two weeks, they had thrown into it 
1114 bodies, when they were obliged to fill it up, the 
bodies being then come to lie within six feet of the 
surface. I doubt not but there may be some ancient 
persons alive in the parish who can justify the fact 
of this, and are able to shew even in what part of the 
church-yard the pit lay better than I can ; the mark 
of it, also, was many years to be seen in the church- 
yard, on the surface lying in length parallel T\dth the 
passage which goes by the west wall of the church- 
yard, out of Houndsditch, and turns east again into 



86 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGt'E. 



White-chapel^ corning out near the Three Xuns 
Inn. 

It was about the 1 0th of September, that mv curi- 
osity led, or rather droye, me to go and see this pit 
again, when there had been near 400 people buried 
in it; and I was not content to see it in the day- 
time, as I had done before, for then there would have 
been nothing to have been seen but the loose earth; 
for all the bodies that were thrown in were imme- 
diately covered v^ith earth, by those they called the 
buryers, vdiich at other times were called bearers; 
but I resolved to go in the night and see some of 
them throv.'n in. 

There was a strict order to prevent people coming 
to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection; 
but after some time that order was more necessary; 
for people that were infected, and near their end, and 
dehrious also, would run to those pits, wrapped in 
blankets or rugs, and throw themselves in, and, as 
they said, bury themselves. I cannot say that the 
officers suffered any vdlhngly to lie there ; but I have 
heard, that in a great pit in Finsbuiy*, in the parish 
of Cripplegate, it lying open then to the fields, for it 
was not then walled about, they came and threw 
themselves in, and expired there before they threw 
any earth upon them: and that when they came to 
bury others, and found them there, they were quite 
dead, though not cold. 

This may seiwe a little to describe the dreadful 
condition of that day, though it is impossible to say 

* The Finsbury pit is thus alluded to by Pepys, under the date 
of August 30th. — I went forth and walked towards Mooifields to 
see (God forgive my presumption !) whether I could see any Dead 
corpse going to the grave ; but, as God would have it, did not. But 
Lord I how everybociy looks, and discourses in the street of Death, 
and nothing else, and few people going up and down, that the town 
is like a place distressed and forsaken." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGrE. 



87 



anything that is able to give a true idea of it to 
those who did not see it, other than this, that it was 
indeed very, very, 'cery dreadful, and such as no 
tongue can express ! 

I got admittance into the church-yard by being 
acquainted with the sexton who attended, who, 
though he did not refuse me at all, yet earnestly 
persuaded me not to go ; telling me vers^ seriously, 
for he was a good, rehgious, and sensible man, that it 
was, indeed, their business and duty to Tentm-e and 
to run all hazards, and that in it they might hope to 
be preserved ; but that I had no apparent call to it 
but my own curiosity, which he said he believed I 
would not pretend was sufficient to justify my run- 
ning that hazard. I told him I had been pressed in 
my mind to go, and that perhaps it might be an in- 
structing sight, that might not be without its uses. — 
NayT — says the good man, if you will venture 
upon that score ^ ^ Name of God^ go in ; for depend 
upon it, 'tvnll he a sermon to you, it muy he the best 
that ever you heard in your life. It is a speaking 
sight," — says he — and has a voice with it, and a 
loud one, to call us to repentance and with that he 
opened the door, and said, Go, if you willJ' 

His discourse had shocked my resolution a little, 
and I stood wavering for a good while, but just at 
that interval I saw two links come over from the end 
of the !Minories, and heard the bellman, and then 
appeared a Dead- cart, as they called it, coming over 
the streets, so I could no longer resist my desire of 
seeing it, and went in. There was nobody, as I could 
perceive at first, in the church-yard, or going into it, 
but the buryers and the fellow that drove the cart, or 
rather led the horse and cart ; but when they came up 
to the pit, they saw a man go to and again, muffled 
up in a broT^Ti cloak, and making motions with his 



88 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. fl 

bauds under his cloak, as if he was in a great agony, 
and the huryers immediately gathered about him, 
supposing he was one of those poor delirious or des- 
perate creatures, that used to pretend, as I have said, 
to bury themselves ! He said nothing, as he walked 
about, but two or three times groaned veiy deeply 
and loud, and sighed as he would break his heart. 

When the buryers came up to him, they soon 
found he was neither a person infected and desperate, 
as I hare observed above, nor a person distempered 
in mind, but one oppressed with a dreadful weight of 
grief indeed, having his wife and several of his chil- 
dren, all in the cart that was just come in with him, 
and he followed in an agony and excess of sorrow. 
He mourned heartily, as it was easy to see ; but T\ith 
a kind of mascuhne grief, that could not give itself 
vent by tears, and calmly desiring the buiyers to let 
him alone, said he would only see the bodies thrown 
in and go away, so they left importuning him ; but no 
sooner was the cart turned round, and the bodies 
shot into the pit promiscuously, which was a surprise 
to him, for he at least expected they would have been 
decently laid in, though, indeed, lie was afterwards 
convinced that was impracticable; I say, no sooner did 
he see the sight, but he cried out aloud, unable to 
contain himself. I could not hear what he said, but 
he went backward two or three steps, and fell down 
in a swoon ; the buryers ran to him, and took him ap, 
and in a little while he came to himself, and they led 
him away to the Pye-tavern, over-against the end of 
Houndsditch"^, where, it seems, the man was knoT^ii, 
and where they took care of him. He looked into 

* The Pye Tavern, or, as it is now called, the Crown and Magpie, 
still exists in Aldgate High-street ; — the Three Nuns Inn (men- 
tioned in p. 86) is likewise yet remaining, has a great business, and 
is much frequented hy travellers from the eastern counties* 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



89 



the pit again as he went away, but the buryers had 
covered the bodies so immediately with throwing in 
the earth, that though there was hght enough, for 
there were lanterns with candles in them, placed all 
night round the sides of the pit upon the heaps of 
earth, seren or eight, or perhaps more, yet nothing 
could be seen. 

This was a mournful scene, indeed, and affected 
me almost as much as the rest, but the other was 
awful and full of terror. The cart had in it sixteen 
or seventeen bodies; some were wrapped up in linen 
sheets, some in rugs, some little other than naked, or 
so loose, that what covering they had fell from them, 
in the shooting out of the cart, and they fell quite 
naked among the rest; but the matter was not much 
to them, or the indecency much to any one else, 
seeing they were all dead, and were to be huddled 
together into the common Grave of Mankind, as we 
may call it, for here was no difference made, but poor 
and rich went together. There was no other way 
of burials, neither was it possible there should, for 
coffins were not to be had for the prodigious numbers 
that fell in such a calamity as this. 

It was reported, by way of scandal upon the 
buryers, that if any corpse was dehvered to them 
decently wound up, as we called it then, in a winding 
sheet, tied over the head and feet, which some did, 
and which was generally of good linen ; I say, it was 
reported, that the buryers were so wicked as to strip 
them in the cart, and carry them quite naked to the 
ground; but as I cannot easily credit anything so 
\ile among Christians, and at a time so filled with 
terrors as that was, I can only relate it, and leave it 
undetermined. 

Innumerable stories also went about of the cruel 
behaviours and practices of nurses, who tended the 



90 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



sick, and of their hastening on the fate of those they 
tended m their sickness, but I shall say more of this 
in its place. 

I was indeed shocked with this sight ; it almost 
overwhelmed me, and I went away with my heart 
most afiiicted and full of afflicting thoughts, such as 
I cannot describe. Just at my going out of the 
church-yard, and turning up the street towards my 
own house, I saw another cart with links and a bell- 
man going before, coming out of Harrow-alley, in the 
Butcher-row, on the other side of the way, and being, 
as I perceived, very fall of dead bodies, it went 
directly over the street also towards the church. I 
stood awhile, but I had no stomach to go back again 
to see the same dismal scene over again, so I went 
directly home, where I could not but consider, v^ith 
thankfulness, the risk I had run, believing I had 
gotten no injury, as, indeed, I had not. 

Here the poor unhappy gentleman's grief came 
into my head again, and, indeed, I could not but shed 
tears in the reflection upon it, perhaps more than he 
did himself ; but his case lay so hea\y upon my mind, 
that I could not prevail with myself, but that I must 
go out again into the street, and go to the Pye-tavem, 
resolving to inquire what became of him. 

It was by this time one o'clock in the morning, and 
yet the poor gentleman was there; the truth was, the 
people of the house knomng him, had entertained 
him, and kept him there all the night, notT\ithstand- 
ing the danger of being infected by him, though it 
appeared the man was perfectly sound himself. 

It is with regret, that I take notice of this tavern: 
the people were civil, mannerly, and an obliging sort 
of folks enough, and had till this time kept their 
house open, and their trade going on, though not so 
very publicly as formerly; but there was a dreadful 



I 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



91 



set of Fellows that used their house, and who, in the 
middle of all this horror, met there every night, and 
behaved with all the reveHing and roaring extrava- 
g^cies, as is usual for such people to do at other 
times, and, indeed, to such an offensive degree, that 
the very master and mistress of the house grew first 
ashamed, and then terrified at them. 

They sat generally in a room next the street ; and 
as they always kept late hours, so when the Bead- 
cart came across the street end to go into Hounds- 
ditch, which was in view of the Tavern "windows, 
they would frequently open the windows as soon as 
they heard the hell, and look out at them ; and as 
they might often hear sad lamentations of people in 
the streets, or at their windows, as the carts went 
along, they would make their impudent mocks and 
jeers at them, especially if they heard the poor people 
call upon God to have mercy upon them, as many 
would do at those times in their ordinary passing 
along the streets. 

These gentlemen being something disturbed vdth 
the clutter of bringing the poor gentleman into the 
house, as above, were first angry, and veiy high with 
the master of the house, for suffering such a fellow, 
as they called him, to be brought out of the grave 
into their house ; but being answered, that the man 
was a neighbour, and that he was sound, but over- 
whelmed with the calamity of his family, and the 
nke, they turned their anger into ridicuhng the man, 
and his sorrovv^ for his wife and children ; taunting 
him with want of courage to leap into the great Pit, 
and go to Heaven, as they jeeringly expressed it, 
along with them ; adding some very profane, and 
even blasphemous expressions. 

They were at this vile work when I came back to 
the house ; and as far as I could see, though the man 



92 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



sat stilly mute, and disconsolate, and their affronts 
could not divert his sorrow, yet he was both grieved 
and offended at their discourse. Upon this I gently 
reproved them, being well enough acquainted with 
their characters, and not unknown in person to two 
of them. 

They immediately fell upon me with ill language 
and oaths : asked me what I did out of my grave, at 
such a time when so many honester men were carried 
into the church-yard ? and why I was not at home, 
saying my prayers, against the Dead-cart came for 
me ? and the like. 

I was indeed astonished at the impudence of the 
men, though not at all discomposed at their treatment 
of me ; however, I kept my temper. I told them, 
that though I defied them, or any man in the world, 
to tax me with any dishonesty, yet, I acknowledged, 
that in this terrible Judgment of God, many better 
than I were swept away, and carried to their grave ; 
but to answer their question directly, the case was, 
that I was mercifully preserved by that great God, 
whose name they had blasphemed and taken in vam, 
by cursing and swearing in a dreadful manner ; and 
that I believed I was preserved in particular (among 
other ends of his Goodness), that I might reprove 
them for their audacious boldness, in behaving in 
such a manner, and in such an awful time as this 
was ; especially, for their jeering and mocking at an 
honest gentleman, and a neighbour, for some of them 
knew him, who they saw was overwhelmed with 
sorrow, for the breaches which it had pleased God 
to make upon his family. ♦ 

I cannot call exactly to mind the hellish abomi> 
nable Raillery, which was the return they made to 
that talk of mine, being provoked, it seems, that I 
was not at all afraid to be free with tliem ; nor, if I 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



93 



could remember, would I fill my account with any of 
tlie words, tlie horrid oaths, curses, and vile expres- 
sions, such as, at that time of the day, even the worst 
and ordinariest people in the street would not use ; 
— for except such hardened creatures as these, the 
most wicked wretches that could be found, had at 
that time some terror upon their minds of the Hand 
of that Power which could thus, m a moment, destroy 
them. 

But that which was the worst in all their derihsh 
language was, that they were not afraid to blaspheme 
God, and talk atheistically ; making a jest at my 
calhng the Plague the Hand of God, mocking, and 
even laughing at the word Judgment, as if the pro- 
ridence of God had no concern in the infiicting such 
a desolating stroke; and that the people calling upon 
God, as they saw the carts carrying away the Dead 
bodies, was all enthusiastic, absurd, and impertinent. 

I made them some reply, such as I thought proper, 
but which I found was so far from putting a check 
to their horrid way of speaking, that it made them 
rail the more ; so that I confess it filled me with 
horror, and a kind of rage, and I came away, as I 
told them, lest the hand of tha^ Judgment which had 
Tisited the whole city should glorify his vengeance 
upon them, and all that were near them. 

They received all reproof with the utmost contempt, 
and made the greatest mockery that was possible 
for them to do at me, giving me all the opprobrious 
insolent scoffs that they could think of, for preaching 
to them, as they called it, which indeed grieved me, 
rather than angered me ; and I went away, blessing 
God, however, in my mind, that I had not spared 
them, though they had insulted me so much. 

They continued this wretched course three or four 
days after this, continually mocking and jeering at 



94 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



all tliat showed themselves religious, or serious, or 
tliat were in any way touched with the sense of the 
terrible Judgment of God upon us, and I was in- 
formed they flouted in the same manner at the good 
people who, notwithstanding the contagion, met at 
the church, fasted, and prayed to God to remove his 
hand from them. 

I say, they continued this dreadful course three or 
four days, / think it was no more, when one of them, 
particularly he who asked the poor Gentleman 
''what he did out of his grave? " was struck from 
Heaven with the Plague, and died in a most de- 
plorable manner ; and, in a word, they were every 
one of them carried into the great Pit, which I have 
mentioned above, before it was quite filled up, which 
was not above a fortnight, or thereabout. 

These men were guilty of many extravagances, 
such as one would think human nature should have 
trembled at the thoughts of, at such a time of general 
terror, as was then upon us ; and particularly scoffing 
and mocking at everything which they happened to 
see, that was religious among the people, especially 
at their thronging zealously to the place of public 
worship, to implore mercy from Heaven, in such a 
time of distress ; and this Tavern, where they held 
their club, being within view of the church door, 
they had the more particular occasion for their 
atheistical profane mirth. 

But this began to abate a little with them before 
the accident, which I have related, happened ; for 
the Infection increased so violently at this part of the 
town now, that people began to be afraid to come to 
the church, at least, such numbers did not resort 
thither as was usual ; many of the Clergymen like- 
wise were dead, and others gone into the country ; 
for it really required a steady courage, and a strong 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



95 



faith, for a man, not only to venture being in town 
at such a time as this, but Hkewise to venture to 
come to church and perform the office of a minister 
to a congregation, of whom he had reason to beheve 
many of them were actually infected with the Plague, 
and to do this every day, or twice a day, as in some 
places was done. 

It is true, the people showed an extraordinary zeal 
in these religious exercises, and as the church doors 
were always open, people would go in single at all 
times, whether the minister was officiating or no, 
and locking themselves into separate pews, would be 
praying to God with great fervency and devotion. 

Others assembled at meeting-houses, every one as 
their different opinions in such things guided, but 
all were promiscuously the subject of these men's 
drollery, especially at the beginning of the Visitation. 

It seems they had been checked for their open 
insulting religion in this manner, by several good 
people of every persuasion, and that, and the violent 
raging of the Infection, I suppose, was the occasion 
that they had abated much of their rudeness for 
some time before, and were only roused by the spirit 
of ribaldry and atheism at the clamour which was 
made when the gentleman was first brought in there, 
and, perhaps, were agitated by the same Devil when 
I took upon me to reprove them ; though I did it at 
first with all the calmness, temper, and good man- 
ners that I could, which, for a while, they insulted 
me the more for, thinking it had been in fear of 
their resentment, though afterwards they found the 
contrary. 

I went homCj indeed, grieved and afflicted in my 
mind, at the abominable wickedness of those men, 
not doubting, however, that they would be made 
dreadful examples of God's justice: for I looked 



96 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGirE. 



upon this dismal time to be a particular season of 
divine rengeance, and that God would, on this occa- 
sion, single out the proper objects of his displeasure, 
in a more especial and remarkable manner than at 
another time ; and that, though I did beliere that 
many good people would, and did, fall in the common 
calamity, and that it was no certain rule to judge of 
the eternal state of any one, by their being distin- 
guished in such a time of general destruction, neither 
one way or other ; yet, I say, it could not but seem 
reasonable to beheve, that God would not think fit to 
spare by his mercy such open declared enemies, that 
should insult his name and being, defy his vengeance, 
and mock at his worship and worshippers, at such a 
time ; — no, not though his mercy had thought fit to 
bear with, and spare them at other times : that this 
v/as a day of visitation, a day of God's anger ; and 
those words came into my thought, — Jer. v. 9. 

Shall I not visit for these tilings, saith the Lord, 
and shall not 7ny soid be avenged of such a nation 
as this ? " 

These things, I say, lay upon my mind ; and I 
went home very much grieved and oppressed with 
the horror of these men's wickedness, and to think 
that anything could be so yile, so hardened, and so 
notoriously wicked, as to insult God and his servants, 
and his worship, in such a manner, and at such a 
time as this was ; when he had, as it were, his 
sword drawn in his hand, on purpose to take ven- 
geance, not on them only, but on the whole nation. 

I had, indeed, been in some passion at first with 
them, though it was really raised, not by any affront 
they had offered me personally, but by the horror 
their blaspheming tongues filled me with ; however, 
I was doubtful in my thoughts, whether the resent- 
ment I retained was not all upon my own private 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



97 



account, for they had giyen me a great deal of ill 
language too, I mean personally ; but after some 
pause, and having a weight of grief upon mj mind^ 
I retired myself, as soon as T came home, for I slept 
not that night ; and, giving God most humble thanks 
for my preservation in the imminent danger I had 
been in, I set mj mind seriously, and with the utmost 
earnestness, to pray for those desperate wretches, 
that God would pardon them, open their eves, and 
effectually humble them. 

By this, I not only did my duty, namely, to pray 
for those who despitefully used me, but I fully tried 
my own heart, to my full satisfaction, that it was not 
filled with any spirit of resentment, as they had 
offended me in particular ; and I humbly recommend 
the method to all those that would know, or be 
certain, how to distinguish between their real zeal 
for the honour of God, and the effects of their private 
passions and resentment. 

But I must go back here to the particular inci- 
dents which occur to my thoughts of the time of the 
Visitation, and particularly to the time of their 
shutting up Houses, in the first part of the sickness ; 
for before the sickness was come to its height, people 
had more room to make their observations than they 
had afterward : but when it was in the extremity, 
there was no such thing as communication with one 
another, as before. 

Dming the shutting up of Houses, as I have said, 
some violence was offered to the Watchmen ; as to 
Soldiers, there were none to be found ; the few 
Guards which the King then had, which were nothing 
like the number entertained since, were dispersed, 
either at Oxford mth the court, or in quarters in the 
remoter ' parts of the country ; small detachments 
excepted, who did duty at the Tower, and at White- 

H 



98 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



hall, and these but very few : neither am I positive 
that there was any other gaard at the Tower, than 
the Warders, as they call them, who stand at the 
gate with gowns and caps, the same as the Yeomen 
of the Guard ; except the ordinary gunners, who 
were twenty-four, and the officers appointed to look 
after the magazine, who were called armourers : as 
to trained hands, there was no possibility of raising 
any ; neither if the Lieutenancy, either of London or 
Middlesex, had ordered the drums to beat for the 
Militia, would any of the Companies, I believe, have 
drawTa together, whatever risk they had run. 

This made the Watchmen be the less regarded, 
and perhaps occasioned the greater violence to be 
used against them. I mention it on this score, to 
observe that the setting Watchmen thus to keep the 
people in, was, first of all, not effectual, but that the 
people broke out, whether by force or by stratagem, 
even almost as often as they pleased ; and secondly^ 
that those that did thus break out, were generally 
people infected, who, in their desperation, running 
about from one place to another, valued not who 
they injured, and which, perhaps, as I have said, 
might give birth to the report, that it was natural to 
the infected people to desire to infect others ; which 
report was really false. 

And I know it so well, and in so many several 
cases, that I could give several relations of good, 
pious, and religious people, who, when they have had 
the Distemper, have been so far from being forward 
to infect others, that they have forbid their own 
family to come near them, in hopes of their being- 
preserved ; and have even died without seeing their 
nearest relations, lest they should be instrumental to 
give them the Distemper, and infect or endanger 
them. If then there were cases wherein the infected 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



99 



people were careless of the injury they did to others, 
this was certainly one of them, (if not the chief,) 
namely, when people, who had the Distemper, had 
broken out from houses which were so shut up, and 
having been driven to extremities for provision, or 
for entertainment, had endeavoured to conceal tbeir 
condition, and have been thereby instrumental, invo- 
luntarily, to infect others who were ignorant and 
unwary. 

This is one of the reasons why I believed then, and 
do believe still, that the shutting up of Houses thus 
by force, and restraining, or rather imprisoning people 
in their own houses, as is said above, was of little or 
no service in the whole ; nay, I am of opinion, it 
was rather hurtful, having forced those desperate 
people to wander abroad with the Plague upon them, 
who would otherwise have died quietly in their beds. 

I remember one Citizen, who having thus broken 
out of his house in Alder sgate street, or thereabout, 
went along the road to Ishngton : he attempted to 
have gone in at the Angel Inn, and after that at the 
White Horse, two inns known still by the same signs, 
but was refused ; after which he came to the Pied 
Bull, an inn also still continuing the same sign ; he 
asked them for lodging for one night only, pretend- 
ing to be going into Lincolnshire, and assuring them 
of his being very sound, and free from the Infection, 
which also, at that time, had not reached much that 
way 

They told him they had no lodging that they 
could spare, but one bed, up in the garret, and that 
they could spare that bed but for one night ; some 

* Two of the Signs, at Islington, meutioned in the above para- 
graph, viz. the ADgel and the Pied Bull, still remain: but the Inns 
themselves have been rebuilt within about the last ten or fifteen 
yeare. 

H 2 



100 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



drovers being expected the next day, with cattle ; so, 
if he would accept of that lodging, he might hare it, 
which he did ; so a servant was sent up with a candle 
with him^ to shew him the room. He was veiy well 
dressed, and looked like a person not used to he in a 
garret, and when he came to the room, he fetched a 
deep sigh, and said to the servant, ^"^I have seldom lain 
in such a lodging as this;" however, the servant 
assured him again that they had no better. Well," 
says he, I must make shift ; this is a dreadful time, 
but it is but for one night." So he sat down upon 
the bed-side, and bade the maid, I think it was, fetch 
him up a pint of warm ale ; accordingly, the servant 
went for the ale ; but some hm'rv in the house, which 
perhaps employed her otherways, put it out of her 
head; and she went up no more to him. 

The next morning, seeing no appearance of the 
Gentleman, somebody in the house asked the servant 
that had shewed him up stairs, what was become of 
him ? " She started : Alas ! " says she, I never 
thought more of him ; he bade me carry him some 
warm ale, but I forgot ;" upon which, not the maid, 
but some other person was sent up to see after him, 
who, coming into the room, found him stark dead, 
and almost cold, stretched out across the bed : his 
clothes were pulled off, his jaw fallen, his eyes open 
in a most frightful posture, the rug of the bed being 
grasped hard in one of his hands ; so that it was 
plain he died soon after the maid left him, and, it is 
probable, had she gone up with the ale, she had 
found him dead in a few minutes after he sat down 
upon the bed. The alarm was great in the house, as 
any one may suppose, they having been free from the 
Distemper till that disaster, which, bringing the 
Infection to the house, spread it immediately to other 
houses round about it. I do not remember how many 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 101 

died in tlie house itself, but I think the maid-servant 
who went up first with him, fell presently ill by the 
fright, and several others ; for whereas there died 
but two in Islington of the Plague the week before, 
there died seventeen the week after, whereof fourteen 
were of the Plague ; this was in the week from the 
11th of July to the 18th. 

There was one shift that some families had, and 
that not a few, when their houses happened to be 
infected, and that was this: — The families who, in 
the first breaking out of the Distemper, fled away 
into the country, and had retreats among their friends^ 
generally found some or other of their neighbours or 
relations to commit the charge of those houses to, for 
the safety of the goods, and the like. Some houses 
were, indeed, entirely locked up, the doors padlocked, 
the windows and doors having deal boards nailed 
over them, and only the inspection of them com- 
mitted to the ordinary watchman and parish officers; 
but these were but few. 

It was thought that there were not less than 
10,000 Houses forsaken of the inhabitants in the 
City and suburbs, including what was in the out- 
parishes, and in Surrey, or the side of the water they 
called Southwark. This was besides the numbers of 
lodgers, and of particular persons who were fled out 
of other famihes : so that it was computed that about 
200,000 were fled and gone in all. But of this I 
shall speak again : but I mention it here on this 
account, namely, — that it was a rule with those who 
had thus two houses in their keeping or care, that 
if anybody was taken sick in a family, before the 
master of the family let the Examiners or any other 
Officer know of it, he immediately would send all 
the rest of his family, whether children or servants, 
as it fell out to be, to such other house which he had 



102 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 



SO in charge, and then gmng notice of the sick per- 
son to the Examiner, have a nurse, or nurses, ap- 
pointed ; and hare another person to be shut up in 
the house Tvith them (Tvhich many for money \\'ould 
consent to), to take charge of the house, in case the 
person should die. 

This was, in many cases, the saying a whole 
family, who, if they had been shut up with the sick 
person, would ineyitably haye perished. But, on 
the other hand, this was another of the inconyeni- 
ences of shutting up houses ; for the apprehensions 
and terror of being shut up made many run away 
-^^ith the rest of the family, who, though it was not 
publicly known, and they were not quite sick, had 
yet the Distemper upon them; and who, by having 
an uninterrupted liberty to go about, but being 
obliged still to conceal their circumstances, or per- 
haps not knowing it themselyes, gaye the Distemper 
to others, and spread the Infection in a dreadful man- 
ner, as I shall explain farther hereafter. 

And here I may be able to make an obseryation or 
two of my ovm, vrhich may be of use hereafter to 
those into whose hands this may come, if they should 
eyer see the like dreadful Visitation . First, the 
Infection generally came into the houses of the citi- 
zens by the means of their seryants, whom they were 
obliged to send up and down the streets for necessa- 
ries, that is to say, for food, or physic ; to bake- 
houses, brew-houses, shops, &c., and who, going 
necessarily through the streets into shops, markets, 
and the like, it was impossible but that they should, 
one way or other, meet with distempered people, 
who conyeyed the fatal breath into them, and they 
brought it home to the families to which they be- 
longed. Secondly, it was a great mistake, that such 
a great city as this had but one Pest-house; for 



^rEMOIRS OF THE PLAGITE. 



103 



had there been, mstead of one Pest-house, viz. beyond 
Bnnhill-nelds, Tvhere, at most, they could receire, 
perhaps 200 or 300 people; I sav, had there, mstead 
of that one, been several Pest-houses every one able 
to contain a thousand people without lying t^vo in a 
bed, or two beds in a room ; and had every master 
of a family as soon as any servant (especially) had 
been taken sick in his house, been obhged to send 
them to the next Pest-house, if they were willing, 
as many were, and had the Examiners done the like 
among the poor people, when any had been stricken 
with the Infection, — I say, had this been done where 
the people were willing (not otherwise), and the 
houses not been shut, I am persuaded, and was all 
the while of that opinion, that not so many, by seve- 
ral thousands, had died; for it was observed, and I 
could give several instances within the compass of 
my own knowledge, that where a servant had been 
taken sick, and the family had either time to send 
him out, or retire from the house, and leave the sick 
person, as I have said above, they were all preserved; 
whereas, when upon one or more sickening in a family, 
the house has been shut up, the whole family have 
peiished, and the bearers been obhged to go in to 
fetch out the dead bodies, none being able to bring 
them to the door; and at last none left to do it. 

This put it out of the question to me, that the 
calamity was spread by infection, that is to say, by 
some certain steams, or fumes, which the physicians 
c-all EJiiii'ia ; by the breath, or by the sweat, or by 
the stench of the sores of the sick persons, or some 
other way, perhaps, beyond even the reach of the 
physicians themselves; which Efftu'cia affected the 

* The scheme of Sir John Colbatch, for apportioning the town 
into districts, in times of infection, has been mentioned in a precediD? 
note. — ■Vide p. 69, note. 



104 



MEMOIRS OF THE PIAGUE, 



sound who came within certain distances of the sick. 
inimediatelT penetrating the vital parts of the said 
sound persons, putting their blood into an immediate 
ferment, and agitating their spirits to that degree to 
which it was found thev were agitated; and so those 
newly-infected persons communicated it in the same 
manner to others. This I shall give some instances 
of, that cannot but convince those who seriouslv 
consider it ; and I cannot but with some wonder find 
some people, now the Contagion is over, talk of its 
being an immediate stroke from Heaven, without the 
agency of means, having commission to strike this 
and that particular person, and none other ; which I 
look upon Tsith contempt, as the effect of manifest 
ignorance and enthusiasm. So likewise of the opi- 
nion of others, who talk of infection being carried on 
by the air only, by can^ving with it vast numbers of 
insects, and invisible creatures, who enter into the 
body with the breath, or even at the pores with the 
air, and there generate, or emit most acute poisons, 
or poisonous ova, or eggs, which mingle themselves 
with the blood, and so infect the body: — a discourse 
full of learned simphcity, and manifested to be so by 
universal experience; but I shall say more to this 
case in its order 



* Dr. Hodges mentions Father Kircher as having adduced 
experiments, probablv microscopical, in proof of the theory which 
ascribes the Plague to the presence of minute insects ; but he R.dds 

I must ingeniously confess, that notwithstanding the most careful 
and industrious attempts, by all means likely to promote the dis- 
covery of such matter, and that I have had as good opportunities for 
this purpose as any physician, it hath not yet been my happiness 
(if such minute Insect caused this pest) to discern them, neither 
have I hitherto, by the information of credible testimonies, received 
Eatisfaction in this point." — Letter to a Person of Quality^ p. 15, 
16. Sir R. Blackmore very properly observes that if worms or 
animalculae are found in ulcers produced by the Plague, they should 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



105 



I must here take farther notice that nothing was 
more fatal to the inhabitants of this city than the 
supine negligence of the people themselves, who^ 
during the long notice or warning they had of the 
Visitation, yet made no provision for it, by laying in 
stores of provisions, or of other necessaries, by which 
they might have lived retired, and within their own 
houses, as I observed others did, and who were in a 
great measure preserved by that caution ; nor were 
they, after they were a little hardened to it, so shy of 
conversing with one another, when actually infected, 
as they were at first; no, though they knew it. 

I acknowledge I was one of those thoughtless ones 
that had made so little provision, that my servants 
were obliged to go out of doors to buy every trifle 
by penny and half-penny, just as before it begun, 
even till my experience showing me the folly, I began 
to be vdser so late, that I had scarce time to store 
myself sufficient for our common subsistence for a 
month. 

I had in family only an ancient woman, who 
managed the house, a maid-servant, two apprentices. 



be regarded by no means as the cause, but the effect of pestilen- 
tial putrefaction." — Discourse on the Plague, p. 36. 

In Birch's " History of the Royal Society," (vol. ii. p. 69.) it is 
stated from Dr. Charleton's relation, *' that the notion concerning 
the vermination of the air as the cause of the Plague, first started 
in England by Sir George Ent, afterwards managed in Italy by 
Father Kircher, was so much farther advanced there that, by the 
relation of Dr. Bacon (who had long practised physic at Rome) 
it had been observed there, that there was a kind of insect in the 
air which, being put upon a man's hand, would lay eggs hardly dis- 
cernible without the aid of a microscope ; which eggs, being for an 
experiment given to be snuffed up by a dog, the dog fell into a 
distemper accompanied by all the symptoms of the Plague! As this 
strange tale was not heard without some indications of disbelief 
among the members present, the relater offered to bring Dr. Bacon 
to give a full and punctual account of this matter 



106 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

and myself ; and the Plague beginning to increase 
about US5 1 bad many sad thoughts about what course 
I should take, and how I should act. The many 
dismal objects which happened every where as I 
went about the streets, had filled my mind with a 
great deal of horror, for fear of the Distemper itself, 
which was, indeed, very horrible in itself, and in 
some more than in others : the swellings, which were 
generally in the neck or groin, when they grew hard, 
and would not break, grew so painful, that it was 
equal to the most exquisite torture ; and some, not 
able to bear the torment, threw themselves out at 
windows, or shot themselves, or otherwise made 
themselves away, and I saw several dismal objects 
of that kind ; others, unable to contain themselves, 
vented their pain by incessant roaring, and such loud 
and lamentable cries were to be heard as we walked 
along the streets, that would pierce the very heart to 
think of, especially when it was to be considered that 
the same dreadful Scourge might be expected every 
moment to seize upon ourselves. 

I cannot say but that now I began to faint in my 
resolutions ; my heart failed me very much, and 
sorely I repented of my rashness. "When 1 had been 
out, and met with such terrible things as these I 
have talked of, — I say I repented my rashness in 
venturing to abide in town : I wished often that I 
had not taken upon me to stay, but had gone away 
with my brother and his family. 

Terrified by those frightful objects, I would retire 
home sometimes, and resolve to go out no more, and 
perhaps I would keep those resolutions for three or 
four days, which time I spent in the most serious 
thankfulness for my preservation, and the preserva- 
tion of my family, and the constant confession of my 
sins, giving myself up to God every day, and applying 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGI E. 



lo; 



to him, v^ith fasting, humiliation, and meditation. 
Such intervals as I had, I employed in reading books, 
and in writing down my Memorandums of what 
occurred to me eyeiy day, and out of which after- 
wards I took most of this work, as it relates to my 
observations without doors. TMiat I wrote of my 
private meditations, I reserve for private use, and 
desire it may not be made public on any account 
whatever. 

I also wrote other Meditations upon divine sub- 
jects, such as occurred to me at that time, and were 
profitable to myself, but not fit for any other view, 
and therefore I say no more of that. 

I had a yery good friend, a Physician, whose name 
was Heath, whom I frequently -sisited during this 
dismal time, and to whose advice I was very much 
obhged for many things which he directed me to 
take, by way of preventing the Infection when I went 
out, as he found I frequently did, and to hold in my 
mouth when I was in the streets ; he also came very 
often to see me, and as he was a good Christian as 
well as a good physician, his agreeable conversation 
was a very great support to me in the worst of this 
terrible time ^ . 

It was now the beginning of August, and the 
Plague grew very violent and terrible in the place 
where I hved, and Dr. Heath coming to visit me, 
and finding that I ventured so often out in the streets, 
earnestly persuaded me to lock myself up and my 
family, and not to suffer any of us to go out of doors; 
to keep all our windows fast, shutters and curtains 
close, and never to open them ; but first, to make a 
very strong smoke in the room, where the window or 
door was to be opened, ■v\ith resin and pitch, brimstone 



* It is most probable, that Dr. Heath is an imaginary person, 
devised by De Foe to give an air of greater validity to his narrative. 



108 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

or gunpowder, and the like; and we did this for some [, ^ 
time. But as I had not laid in a store of provision ^jj 
for such a retreat, it was impossible that we could ^ ^ 
keep within doors entirely ; however, I attempted, 3 
though it was so very late, to do something towards 
it. And first, as I had convenience both for brewing 
and baking, I went and bought two sacks of meal, [j^ 
and for several weeks, having an oven, we baked all | 
our own bread; also I bought malt, and brewed as 
much beer as all the casks I had would hold, and ^ , 
which seemed enough to serve my house for five or j 
six weeks ; also I laid in a quantity of salt butter [ 
and Cheshire cheese ; but I had no flesh-meat, and |j 
the Plague raged so violently among the butchers^ I, 
and the slaughter-houses, on the other side of our j 
street, where they are known to dwell in great num- y 
bers, that it was not advisable so much as to go over 
the street among them. j 

And here I must observe again, that this necessity ^ 
of going out of our houses to buy provisions, was in ; 
a great measure the ruin of the whole City, for the \ 
people caught the Distemper, on these occasions, one j 
of another, and even the provisions themselves were | 
often tainted, at least I have great reason to believe d 
so ; and, therefore, I cannot say with satisfaction J 
what I know is repeated with great assurance, that J 
the Market-people, and such as brought provisions ] 
to town, were never infected. I am certain that the 
butchers of Whitechapel, where the greatest part of ^ 
the flesh-meat was killed, were dreadfully visited, 
and that, at last, to such a degree, that few of their 
shops were left open; — and those that remained of 
them, killed their meat at Mile-End and that way, 
and brought it to market upon horses. 

However, the poor people could not lay up provi- 
sions, and there was a necessity that they must go to 



MEMOIRS or THE PLAGUE. 



109 



Market to buy, and others to send servants or their 
children; and as this Tvas a necessity Tvhich rene^^-ed 
itself daily, it brought abundance of unsound people 
to the markets, and a great many that went thither 
'sound brought death home with them. 
' It is true, people used all possible precaution ; 
'when any bought a joint of meat in the Market, 
they would not take it of the butcher's hand, but 
take it off the hooks themsekes. On the other hand, 
the butcher would not touch the money, but hare it 
put in a pot full of vinegar which he kept for that 
purpose. The buyers carried always small money to 
make up any odd sum, that they might take no 
small change. They carried bottles for scents and 
perfumes in their hands, and all the means that could 
be used, were used; but then the poor could not do 
even these things, and they went at all hazards. 

Innumerable dismal stories vre heard every day on 
this very account; sometimes a man or woman dropt 
down dead in the very markets ; for many people 
that had the Plague upon them, knew nothing of it 
till the inward gangreen had affected their vitals, and 
they died in a few moments : this caused, that many 
died frequently in that manner in the streets sud- 
denly, without any warning"^; others, perhaps, had 
time to go to the next bulk or stall, or to any door, 
or porch, and just sit down and die, as I have said 
before. 

These objects were so frequent in the streets, that 
when the Plague came to be very raging on one side, 
there was scarce any passing by the streets, but that 
several dead bodies would be lying here and there 

* This is hardly possible to be true ; for though the Infection 
might be sudden, and its progress rapid, yet that it should be thus 
mortal without the deceased knowing anything of the seizure, is 
contrarv to all analosry. 



110 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



upon the ground; on the other hand it is observable^ 
that though, at first, the people would stop as they 
went along, and call to the neighbours to come out 
on such an occasion, yet, afterward, no notice was ' 
taken of them ; but if at any time we found a corpse 
lying, we would go across the way^ and not come 
near it ; or, if in a narrow lane or passage, go back 
again, and seek some other way to go on the business 
we were upon : — and, in those cases, the corpse was . 
always left till the officers had notice to come and 
take them away ; or, till night, when the bearers 
attending the Dead-cart, would take them up and 
carry them away. Nor did these undaunted crea- 
tures, who performed these offices, fail to search their 
pockets, and sometimes strip off the clothes, if they 
were well drest, as sometimes they were, and carry 
off what they could get. 

But to return to the Markets; the butchers took 
that care, that if any persons died in the market, 
they had the officers always at hand to take them 
upon hand-barrows, and carry them to the next , 
church-yard ; and this was so frequent, that such 
were not entered in the weekly Bill, ''found dead 
in the streets, or fields," as is the case now ; but 
they went into the general articles of the great 
Distemper. 

But now the fury of the Distemper increased to 
such a degree, that even the markets were but very 
thinly furnished with pro\dsions, or frequented with 
buyers, compared to what they were before; and 
the Lord ]\iayor caused the country people who 
brought provisions, to be stopped in the streets 
leading into the town, and to sit down there with 
their goods, where they sold what they brought, and 
went immediately away, and this encouraged the 
country people greatly to do so, for they sold their 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Ill 



provisions at the very entrances into the town, and 
even in the fields ; as particularly in the fields beyond 
Whitechapel, in Spittle-fields. Note, those streets 
now called Spittle-fields, icere then indeed open Fields, 
' — xAJso in St. George' s-fields in South war in Bunhill- 
fields, and in a great field called Wood's-close, near 
Islington*. Thither the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, 
and Magistrates, sent their officers and servants to 
buy for their families, themselves keeping within 
doors as much as possible; and the like did many 
other people : and after this method was taken, the 
country people came with great cheerfulness, and 
brought provisions of all sorts, and very seldom got 
any harm ; which, I suppose, added also to that 
report of their being miraculously preserved t. 

* Wood's Close was near the commencement of St. John's 
Street road : it has since been built on, and is now called North- 
ampton Row. 

'f In the " Intelligencer," No. 55, Sir R. L' Estrange announces 
that, Since it has pleased God to visit this town, city, and other 
parts adjoining with the sad and heavy judgment of the Plague and 
Pestilence, it has been made a great part of many people's business, 
by misreports and false suggestions, to lay the stress in the wrong 
place, and so cut off all communication and correspondence with 
this City. For prevention whereof for the future, I have," says 
he, received an Order and Command to render from time to time 
such an account thereof, as may briefly satisfy the world in the 
main, without overcharging them with particulars. 

There died this last week (ending July 11th,) within the 
bounds of the ordinary Bills of Mortality, 725 persons of the 
Plague, whereof but twenty-eight within the walls of London. So 
that (God be praised) the disease is not yet either so planted in the 
City, or so universal in the Suburbs, as the rumour has made it. 
Yet such is the care of the Right Hon. Lord Mayor, that for the 
more effectual security of the countries which shall continue an 
intercourse with this City, his Lordship is taking a course that a 
strict inspection shall be had within the City and Liberties of all 
goods that shall henceforth be brought to the country carriers and 
waggoners that nothing be either delivered or received from any 
infected Place or Person." 



112 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



As for my little family, having thus, as I have 
said, laid in a store of bread, butter, cheese, and 
beer, I took my friend and physician's advice, and 
locked myself up, and my family, and resolved to 
suffer the hardship of living a few months without 
flesh-meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard 
of our lives. 

But though I confined my family, I could not 
prevail upon my o^^ti unsatisfied curiosity to stay 
^vithin entirely, myself; and though I generally came 
frighted and terrified home, yet 1 could not refrain ; 
only that, indeed, I did not do it so frequently as at 
first. 

1 had some little obligations indeed upon me, to 
go to my brother's house, which was in Coleman- 
street parish, and which he had left to my care, and 
I went at first every day, but afterwards only once or 
tvdce a week. 

In these walks, I had many dismal scenes before 
my eyes, as particularly of persons falhng dead in 
the streets, terrible shrieks and screechings of women, 
who in their agonies would throw open their chamber 
windows, and cry out in a dismal surprising manner : 
it is impossible to describe the variety of postures in 
which the passions of the poor people would express 
themselves. 

Passing through Token-house Yard, in Lothbury, 
of a sudden a casement violently opened just over my 
head, and a woman gave three frightful screeches, 
and then cried, ''Oh! Deeith, Death, Death!'' in a 
most inimitable tone, and which struck me ^^ith horror 
and a chilness in my very blood. There was nobody 
to be seen in the whole street, neither did any other 
window open ; for people had no curiosity now in any 
case ; nor could anybody help one another : so I went 
on to pass into Bell- Alley. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



113 



Just in Bell-xllley, on the right hand of the pas- 
sage, there was a more terrible cry than that, though 
it was not so directed out at the window, but the 
whole family was in a terrible fright, and I could 
hear women and children run screaming about the 
rooms like distracted, when a garret window opened, 
and somebody from a window on the other side the 
alley, called and asked, What is the matter?'' 
upon which, from the first window it was answered, 

Lord, my old master has hanged himself I'' The 
other asked again, Is he quite deadf and the first 
answered, Ay, ay, quite dead ; quite dead and 
cold /" This person was a merchant, and a deputy 
alderman, and very rich. I care not to mention his 
name, though I knew his name too, but that would 
be an hardship to the family, which is now flourish- 
ing again. 

But this is but one ; it is scarce credible what 
dreadful cases happened in particular famiUes every 
day. People in the rage of the Distemper, or in the 
torment of their swellings, which was indeed intoler- 
able, running out of their ovm government, raving 
and distracted, and oftentimes la^dng violent hands 
upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their 
windows, shooting themselves, &c. Mothers mur- 
dering their own children, in their lunacy. Some 
I dying of mere grief, as a passion ; some of mere 
! fright and surprise, without any infection at all: 
; others frighted into idiotism and foolish distractions ; 
some into despair and lunacy ; others into melan- 
choly madness. 

The pain of the swelhng was in particular very 
violent, and to some intolerable. The physicians 
and surgeons may be said to have tortured many 
i poor creatures, even to death : the swellings in some 
grew hard, and they applied violent drawing plaisters, 

I 

i 



114 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



or poultices, to break them; and if these did not do, 
they cut and scarified them in a terrible manner. In 
some, those swellings were made hard, partly by the 
force of the Distemper, and partly by their being too 
yiolently drawn, and were so hard that no instru- 
ment could cut them, and then they burnt them with 
caustics, so that many died raying mad with the 
torment ; and some in the yery operation. In these 
distresses, some for want of help to hold them down 
in their beds, or to look to them, laid hands upon 
themselyes, as aboye. Some broke out into the streets, 
perhaps naked, and would run du'ectly down to the 
riyer, if they were not stopt by the ^Vatchmen, 
or other officers, and plunge themselyes into the 
water whereyer they found it ^ . 

It often pierced my yery soul to hear the groans 
and cries of those who were thus tormented, but of 
the two, this was counted the most promising par- 
ticular in the whole Infection ; for, if these swelhngs 

* An affecting instance of the ungovernable frenzy which at 
times infuriated the diseased, is given in the Tract mentioned in a 
former note on the *' Shutting up of infected Houses." — *'For 
another argument," says the writer, I allege the mischief and sad 
consequence that may arise from the high fits of frenzy that usually ' 
attend this and all other the like distempers ; wherein the sick, (if | 
not restrained by main force of their attendants,) are ready to com- 
mit any violence either upon themselves or others, whether wife, 
mother, or child. A sad instance whereof we had this last week in 
Fleet-lane, where the man of the house being sick, and having a 
great swelling, but not without hope of being almost ripe for break- 
ing, did in a strong fit rise almost out of his bed, in spite of all that 
his wife, who attended him, could do to the contrary got his knife, 
and therewith most niiserably cut his wife, and had killed her, had 
she not wrapped up the sheet about her, and therewith saved her- 
self, till by crying out * murder I ' a neighbour (who was himself 
shut up) opened his own doors, and forced into the house, and 
came seasonably to her preservation. The man is since dead, when 
in all likelihood (had he not by rising struck in the disease) he 
might have recovered." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



115 



could be brought to a head, and to break and run, or 
as the surgeons call it, to digest, the patient generally- 
recovered : whereas those, who, hke the gentle- 
woman's daughter*, were struck with death at the 
beginning, and had the tokens come out upon them, 
often went about indiiferent easy, till a little before 
they died, and some till the moment they dropped 
down, as in apoplexies and epilepsies is often the 
case ; such would be taken suddenly very sick, and 
would run to a bench or bulk, or any convenient 
place that offered itself, or to their own houses, if 
possible, as 1 mentioned before, and there sit down, 
grow faint and die. This kind of dying was much 
the same as it was with those who die of common 
mortifications, who die swooning, and, as it were, go 
away in a dream: such as died thus, had very Httle 
notice of their being infected at all, till the gangrene 
was spread through their whole body; nor could 
physicians themselves know certainly how it was 
with them, till they opened their breasts or other 
parts of their body, and saw the tokens. 

We had at this time a great many frightful stories 
told us of Nurses and Watchmen, who looked after 
the dying people ; that is to say, of hired nurses, who 
attended infected people, using them barbarously, 
starving them, smothering them, or by other wicked 
means hastening their end, that is to say, murdering 
of them : and of Watchmen being set to guard houses 
that were shut up, when there has been but one per- 
son left, and perhaps that one lying sick, that they 
have broke in and murdered that body, and imme- 
diately thrown them out into the Dead-cart ! and so 
they have gone scarce cold to the grave. 

I cannot say but that some murders were com- 
mitted, and I think two were sent to prison for it. 



* See the anecdote alluded to in p. 84. 

I 2 



116 3IE3I0IRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

but died befcue they could be tried: and I haTe Hear;' 
that three others, at several tiiries, ^^cre executed tc. 
I//::;.-:- of that kind; but I must say. I beheve 
L;:.:ix.in^- of its being so conirnon a crime as some have 
since been pleased to say ; nor does it seem to be 
rational that it should be so, vrhere the va:a.le Tvere 
ijrou^nt so low as not to be able to h-n: tncmsei''^^ 
(ibr such seldom reco' -iTa "n' :h:a7 "r n; ' r^np- 
tation to commit a m"ai-.cr, a: .-a-:, none -una; to 
the fact, where they were siu'e persons woudd che in 
so short a time: and coudd not live. 

That there were a great many robberies and wicked 
vancnces committed even in this dreadnal time I do 
no: L.cny. The power of avarice was so strong m 
some, that they would run any hazard to steal and 
lO plunder ; and particinarly in houses where all the 
n'aaayn;-- or inliabitants have been dead, and carried 
out, they woidd break in at all hazards, and without 
regard to the danger of infecrion, take even the clothes 
:: doa daa:l aian and the bed-clothes fi'om others 

This, I suppose, must be [have been" the case of a 
family in Houndschtch. where a man and his daughter 
(the rest of the famdy being, as I suppose, carried 
awa^" ' : by the Dead-cart^, were fo imd stark 
nak: .ai one chamber, and one in another, lying 

dead on the door; and the clothes of the beds (from 
whence "tis -upposed they were rolled oif by thitves) 
stolen, a; ' ' amad quite away. 

It is ij.decd tC) be observed, that the Women were, 



♦ Dr, H:::e^'^ -^a a.: - a.^ ' a- a^i :ici:y and 
rapac-'-.v :: X. . - 'ie-.d ^::h. 

a bo?. -.V n : a ..zi, \y.L^ Dv 

her. — •■ ' . — I "•'■--a '^-e 

above ; :,. _ r.'.y ::.,-c.^ . :n-^ : : ine 

dead were sir.i ] s. evc-L t:. ...-i^e: t'lvm ~:.:ch 
they had " all 1. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 11/ 

in all tliis calamity, the most rash, fearless, and 
desperate creatures ; and as there Tvere vast mmibers 
that went about as Nurses, to tend those that were 
sick^ they committed a great many petty thieveries 
in the houses where they were employed ; and some 
of them were publicly whipped for it, when, perhaps, 
they ought rather to have been hanged for Examples; 
for numbers of houses were robbed on these occasions, 
till at length, the parish officers were sent to recom- 
mend Nurses to the sick, and always took an account 
who it was they sent, so as that they might call them 
to account, if the house had been abused where they 
were placed. 

But these robberies extended chiefly to wearing- 
clothes, hnen, and what rings or money they could 
come at, when the person died who was under their 
care, but not to a general plunder of the houses; 
and I could give you an account of one of these 
Nurses, who, several years after, being on her death- 
bed, confessed, with the utmost horror, the robberies 
she had committed at the time of her being a Nurse, 
and by which she had enriched herself to a great 
degree; but, as for murders, I do not find that there 
was ever any proof of the facts, in the manner as it 
has been reported, except as above. 

They did tell me, indeed, of a Nurse in one place, 
that laid a wet cloth upon the face of a dying patient, 
whom she tended, and so put an end to his life, 
who was just expiiing before; and of another that 
smothered a young woman she was looking to, when 
she was in a fainting fit, and would have come to 
herself : some that killed them by giving them one 
thing, some another, and some starved them by giving 
them nothino; at all. But these stories had two 
marks of suspicion that always attended them, which 
caused me always to slight them, and to look on them 



il8 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



as mere stories, that people continuallv frighted one 
another vrith. First — That wherever it was that we 
heard it, they always place the scene at the farther 
end of the town, opposite, or most remote from where 
you were to hear it. If you heard it in Ytliite-chapel, 
it had happened at St. Giles's, or at Westminster, or 
Holborn, or that end of the town ; if you heard of it 
at that end of the town, then it was done in ^Miite- 
chapel, or the Minories, or about Cripple-gate parish; 
if you heard of it in the City, why, then it happened 
in Southwark ; and if you heard of it in Southwark, 
then it was done in the City, and the hke. 

In the next place, of what part soever you heard 
the story, the particulars were always the same, 
especially that of laying a wet double clout on a 
dying man's face ^, and that of smothering a young 
gentlewoman ; so that it was apparent, at least to 
my judgment, that there was more of Tale than of 
Truth in those things. 

However, I cannot say, but it had some effect 
upon the jDeople ; and particularly, that, as I said 
before, they grew more cautious who they took into 
their houses, and who they trusted their lives "v^ith, 
and had them always recommended, if they could ; 
and where they could not find such, for they were not 
very plenty, they applied to the parish officers. 

But here again, the misery of that time lay upon 
the poor, who, being infected, had neither food nor 
physic : neither Physician nor Apothecary to assist 
them, nor Nurse to attend them. Many of those 

* This inetliod of comuiittine assassinations seems to be derived 
from the story of Ilazael and Ben-hadad in the 2nd Book of Kings: 
— " And it came to pass on the morrt)W, that he took a thick cloth, 
and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died.'* 
— Vide Chap. viii. v. 15. — Tije ingenious author of " Bramble tve 
House" has made great use of tliis, and other parts of De Foe's 
narraiive, in the concluding volume of that interesting Novel. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



119 



died calling for help^ and even for sustenance^ out at 
their windows, in a most miserable and deplorable 
mamier; but it must be added^ that whenever the 
cases of such persons or famihes were represented to 
my Lord Mayor, they always were relieved. 

It is true, that in some houses where the people 
were not very poor, yet, where they had sent per- 
haps then' wives and children away (and if they had 
any servants, they had been dismissed) ; I say, it is 
true, that to save the expenses, many such as these 
shut themselves in, and, not having help, died alone. 

A neighbour and acquaintance of mme, having 
some money owing to him from a shopkeeper in 
Whitecross-street, or thereabouts, sent his apprentice, 
a youth about eighteen years of age, to endeavour to 
get the money. He came to the door, and finding it 
shut, knocked pretty hard, and as he thought, heard 
somebody answer within, but was not sure, so he 
waited, and after some stay, knocked again, and then 
a third time, when he heard somebody coming down 
stairs. 

At length, the man of the house came to the door; 
he had on his breeches or diT.wers, and a yellow 
flannel waistcoat ; no stockings, a pair of sUpt-shoes, 
a white cap on his head, and, as the young man said, 

Death in his face." 

^Mien he opened the door, says he What do 
yoxi disturb me thus for ? " The boy, though a little 
surprised, replied, I come from such a one. and my 
master sent me for the money ichich he says you 
know of'' Very iceR, child,'' returns the living 
ghost, call as you go hy, at Cripple-gate church, 
and hid them ring the Bell ; " and with these words 
he shut the door again, and went up again, and died 
the same day ; nay, perhaps the same hour. This 
the young man told m^e himself, and I have reason to 



120 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGt'E. 



beliere it. TTiis was widle the Plague was not come 
to a height. I think it was in June, towards the 
latter end of the month; it must be before the Dead- 
carts came about^ and while they used the ceremony 
of rhiging the bell for the dead^ which was orer for 
certain, in that parish, at least, before the month of 
July; for by the 25th of July, there died 550 and 
upwards, in a week, and then they could no more 
buiy in form, rich or poor. 

I have mentioned abore, that notwithstanding this 
dreadful Calamity, yet numbers of thieres were 
abroad upon all occasions, where they had found any 
prey, and that these were generally Women. It was 
one morning, about eleven o'clock, I had walked out 
to my brother's house, in Coleman-street parish, as I 
often did, to see that all was safe. 

My brother's house had a Uttle court before it, and 
a brick-wall and a gate in it, and, within that, sererai 
warehouses, where his goods of several sorts lay. It 
happened, that in one of these warehouses were 
several packs of women's high-crowned hats, which 
came out of the country, and were, as I suppose, for 
exportarion ; whither, I know not. 

I was surprised that when I came near my brother's 
door, which was in a place they called Swan-alley, 1 
met three or four women with high-crowned hats on 
their heads ; and as I remembered afterwards, one, 
if not more, had some hats likewise in their hands: 
but as I did not see them come out at my brother's 
door, and not knowing that my brother had any such 
goods in his warehouse, I did not offer to say any- 
thing to them, but went across the way to shun 
meeting them, as was usual to do at that time, for 
fear of the Plague. But when I came near to the 
gate, I met another woman with more hats coming 
out of the gate. What business, Mistress^'' said I, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



121 



" ham you had there ?" There are more people 
there/' said she^ I have had no more business there 
than they." I was hasty to get to the gate then, and 
said no more to her ; by which means she got away. 
But just as I came to the gate, I saw two more com- 
ing across the yard, to come out, with hats also on 
their heads, and under their arms ; at which I threw 
the gate to behind me, which, ha^dng a spring lock, 
fastened itself ; and turning to the women,— For- 
sooth," said I, what are you doing here f " and 
seized upon the hats, and took them from them. One 
of them who, I confess, did not look like a thief — 

Indeed," says she, ^'we are wrong; but we were 
told they were goods that had no owner ; be pleased 
to take them again, and look yonder, there are more 
such customers as we." She cried and looked piti- 
fully, so I took the hats from her, and opened the 
gate, and bade them begone, for I pitied the women 
indeed ; but when I looked towards the warehouse 
as she directed, there were six or seven more, all 
women, fitting themselves with hats, as unconcerned 
and quiet as if they had been at a hatter's shop, 
buying for their money. 

I was surprised, not at the sight of so many thieves 
only, but at the circumstances I was in; being now 
to thrust myself in among so many people, who, for 
some weeks, had been so shy of myself, that if I met 
anybody in the street, I would cross the way from 
them. 

They were equally surprised, though on another 
account ; they all told me, they were neighbours, that 
they had heard any one might take them, that they 
were nobody's goods, and the like. I talked big to 
them at first ; went back to the gate, and took out the 
key ; so that thev were all my prisoners ; threatened 

L 



122 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



to lock them all into the warehouse, and go and fetch 
my Lord Mayor's officers for them. 

They begged heartily, protested they found the 
gate open, and the warehouse door open ; and that 
it had, no doubt, been broken open by some who ex- 
pected to find goods of greater value, which indeed, 
was reasonable to believe, because the lock was broke, 
and a padlock that hung to the door on the outside, 
also loose ; and not abundance of the hats carried 
away . 

At length, I considered that this was not a time 
to be cruel and rigorous ; and besides that, it would 
necessarily oblige me to go much about, to have 
several people come to me, and I go to several, whose 
circumstances of health I knew nothing of : and that, 
even at this time, the Plague was so high, as that 
there died 4000 a week ; so that, in showing my 
resentment, or even in seeking justice for my brother's 
goods, I might lose my own life. So I contented 
myself with taking the names and places where some 
of them lived, who were really inhabitants of the 
neighbourhood ; and threatening that my brother 
should call them to an account for it when he re- 
turned to his habitation. 

Then I talked a little upon another foot with them ; 
and asked them how they could do such things as 
these in a time of such general calamity, and, as it 
were, in the face of God's most dreadful Judgments, 
when the Plague was at their very doors, and it may 
be, in their very houses ; and they did not know but 
that the Dead-cart might stop at their doors in a 
fev/ hours, to carry them to their graves. 

I could not perceive that my discourse made much 
impression upon them all that while, till it happened, 
that there came two men of the neighbourhood, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



123 



hearing of the disturbance, and knowing niv brother, 
for they had both been dependants upon his family, 
and they came to my assistance ; these being, as I 
said, neighbours, presently knew three of the women, 
and told me who they were, and where they hred ; 
and, it seems, they had given m.e a true account of 
themselves before. 

This brings these two men to a farther remem- 
brance. The name of one was John Hayioard, who 
was at that time under-sexton of the parish of St. 
Stephen, Coleman-street : by under-sexton was un- 
derstood at that time grave-digger, and bearer of the 
dead. This man carried, or assisted to carry, all the 
dead to their graves, which were buried in that large 
parish, and who were carried in form ; and after that 
form of burying was stopped, he went with the Dead- 
cart and the Bell, to fetch the dead bodies from the 
houses where they lay, and fetched many of them 
out of the chambers and houses. For the parish was, 
and is still, remarkable, particularly above all the 
parishes in London, for a great number of alleys and 
thoroughfares, very long, into which no carts could 
come, and where they were obhged to go and fetch 
the bodies a very long way ; which alleys now re- 
main to witness it ; such as ^Miite's-alley, Cross- 
key-court, Swan-alley, Bell-alley, White-horse-alley, 
and many more. Here they went with a kind of 
hand-barrow, and laid the dead bodies on it, and 
carried them out to the carts ; which work he per- 
formed, and never had the Distemper at all, but 
lived about twenty years after it, and was sexton of 
the parish to the time of his death. His wife, at 
the same time, was a nurse to infected people, and 
tended many that died in the parish, being, for her 
honesty, recommended by the parish officers, yet she 
never was infected neither. 



124 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



He never used any Preseryative against tlie In- 
fection, otlier than holding garlick and rue in his 
mouth, and smoking tobacco ; this I also had from 
his own mouth : and his T^ife's remedy was washino: 
her head in vinegar, and sprinkling her head clothes 
so with vinegar, as to keep them always moist ; and 
if the smell of any of those she waited on was more 
than ordinarily offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her 
nose, and sprinkled vinegar upon her head clothes, 
and held a handkerchief wetted with vinegar to her 
mouth. 

It must be confessed, that though the Plague was 
chiefly among the poor, yet were the poor the most 
venturous and fearless of it, and went about their 
employment with a sort of brutal courage ; I must 
call it so, for it was founded neither on Rehgion nor 
Prudence ; scarce did they use any caution, but run 
into any business which they could get employment 
in, though it was the most hazardous • such was that 
of tending the sick, watching houses shut up, carry- 
ing infected persons to the Pest-house, and which 
was still worse, carrpng the dead away to their 
graves. 

It was under this John Hayward's care, and within 
his bounds, that the Story of the Piper, with which 
people have made themselves so meriy, happened, 
and he assured me that it was true. It is said that 
he was a blind Piper ; but, as John told me, the 
fellow was not blind, but an ignorant weak poor 
man, and usually walked his rounds about ten o'clock 
at night, and went piping along from door to door, 
and people usually took him in at Public-houses 
where they knew him, and would give him drink and 
victuals, and sometimes farthings ; and he, in return, 
would pipe and sing, and talk simply, which diverted 
the people ; and thus he lived. It was but a very 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 125 

bad time for this diversion, while things were as I 
have told ; yet the poor fellow went about as usual, 
but was almost starved ; and when anybody asked 
how he did, he would answer, — the Dead-cart had 
not taken him yet, but that they had promised to 
call for him next week. 

It happened one night, that this poor fellow, 
W'hether somebody had given him too much drink or 
no, — John Hayward said, he had not drink in his 
house, but that they had given him a little more 
victuals than ordinary at a Public-house in Coleman- 
street ; and the poor fellow, having not usually had a 
bellyful, or, perhaps, not a good while, was laid all 
along on the top of a bulk or stall, and fast asleep, 
at a door, in the street near London-wall, towards 
Cripplegate ; and that upon the same bulk or stall, 
the people of some house, in the alley of which the 
house was a corner, hearing a bell, which they 
always rung before the cart came, had laid a body 
really dead of the Plague just by him ; thinking, too, 
that this poor fellow had been a dead body, as the 
other was, and laid there by some of the neighbours. 

Accordingly, when John Hayward, with his bell 
and the cart, came along, finding two dead bodies lie 
upon the stall, they took them up with the instru- 
ment they used, and threw them into the cart, and 
all this while the Piper slept soundly. 

From hence they passed along, and took in other 
de^d bodies, till, as honest John Hayward told me, 
they almost buried him alive in the cart ; yet all this 
while he slept soundly ; at length the cart came to 
the place where the bodies were to be thrown into 
the ground, which as I do remember, was at Mount- 
mill ^ ; and as the cart usually stopped some time 



* Mount-mill stood on the east side of what is now called Gos- 
well-street, and nearly opposite the end of King- street. 



126 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



before they were ready to shoot out the melancholy 
load they had in it, as soon as the cart stopped, the 
fellow awaked, and struggled a little to get his head 
out from among the dead bodies, when raising him- 
self up in the cart, he called out, — Hey I where 
am 7? "—This frighted the fellow that attended 
about the work ; but after some pause, John Hay- 
ward, recovering himself, said, — Lord hless us! 
there is somebody in the cart not quite dead I " So 
another called to him and said — " Who are you ? " 
The fellow answered — " I am the poor Fiper, Where 
am " Where are you ? " says Hayward; why, 
you are in the Dead-cart, and we are going to bury 
you," But I ant dead, though, am /?" says the 
Piper, which made them laugh a little, though, as 
John said, they were heartily frighted at first ; so 
they helped the poor fellow down, and he went about 
his business. 

I know the story goes, that he set up his Pipes in 
the cart, and frighted the bearers and others, so that 
they ran aw^ay ; but John Hayward did not tell the 
story so, nor say anything of his piping at all : but 
that he was a poor Piper, and that he was carried 
away, as above, I am fully satisfied of the truth of. 

It is to be noted here, that the Dead-carts in the 
City were not confined to particular parishes, but 
one cart went through several parishes, according 
as the numbers of dead presented ; nor were they 
tied to carry the dead to their respective parishes, 
but many of the dead taken up in the City were 
carried to the burying-ground in the out-parts, for 
want of room. 

I have already mentioned the surprise that this 
Judgment was, at first, the occasion of among the peo- 
ple. I must be allowed to give some of my observa- 
tions on the more serious and religious part. Surely 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 12/ 

never City, at least of this bulk and magnitude, was 
taken in a condition so perfectly unprepared for such 
a dreadful Visitation, whether I am to speak of the 
civil preparations, or religious ; thev were, indeed, 
as if they had had no warning, no expectation, no 
apprehensions, and, consequently, the least provi- 
sion imaghiable was made for it in a pubhc way ; for 
example : — 

The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs had made no pro- 
vision as magistrates, for the regulations which were 
to be observed : they had gone into no measures for 
the relief of the poor. 

The Citizens had no pubhc magazines, or store- 
houses for corn, or meal, for the subsistence of the 
poor ; which, if they had provided themselves with, 
as in such cases is done abroad, many miserable fami- 
lies, who were now reduced to the utmost distress, 
would have been relieved, and that in a better manner 
than now could be done. 

The stock of the City's money I can say but little 
to ; the Chamber of London was said to be exceeding 
rich; and it may be concluded that they were so, 
by the vast sums of money issued from thence, in 
the rebuilding the Public edifices after the Fire of 
London, and in building new works, such as, for 
the first part, the Guildhall, Blackwell-hall, part 
of Leaden-hall, half the Exchange, the Session-house, 
the Compter, the prisons of Ludgate, Newgate, &c.; 
several of the wharfs, and stairs, and landing-places 
on the river ; all which were either burnt down or 
damaged by the great Fire of London, the next year 
after the Plague : and of the second sort, the jJonu- 
ment. Fleet-ditch, ^ith its bridges, and the Hospital 
of Bethlem, or Bedlam, &c. But possibly the 
Managers of the City's credit at that time made more 
conscience of breaking in upon the Orphans' money, 



128 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



to shew charity to the distressed citizens, than the 
Managers in the following years did, to beautify the 
City, and re-edify the buildings, though in the first 
case the losers would hare thought their fortunes 
better bestowed and the public faith of the City haye 
been less subjected to scandal and reproach. 

It must be acknowledged, that the absent citizens, 
who, though they were fled for safety into the coun- 
try, were yet greatly interested in the w^elfare of those 
whom they left behind, forgot not to contribute libe- 
rally to the relief of the poor, and large sums were 
also collected among trading towns in the remotest 
parts of England ; and as I have heard also, the nobi- 
lity and the gentry, in all parts of England, took the 
deplorable condition of the City into their consider- 
ation, and sent up large sums of money, in charity, to 
the Lord Mayor and magistrates, for the relief of the 
poor. The King also, as I was told, ordered a thou- 
sand pounds a-week to be distributed in four parts : 
one quarter to the city and liberties of Westminster; 
one quarter, or part, among the inhabitants of the 
South wark side of the water ; one quarter to the 
Liberties and parts without, of the city, exclusive 
of the city within the walls ; and one-fourth part to 
the Suburbs in the county of Middlesex, and the east 
and north parts of the city : but this latter I only 
speak of as a report ^. 



* It appears by some papers in the MS. Library at Lambeth, 
that the Privy Council ordered collections to be made monthly on 
the days of public humiliation, at all the churches throughout the 
kingdom ; the money which was not distributed in the county 
where it was collected, was to be transmitted to the Bishop of Lon- 
don for the relief of the sick in London and Westminster. Regular 
accounts were sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury of the collec- 
tions made in the parishes within his peculiar jurisdiction, and the 
money was transmitted to his secretary. See Lyson's ** Environs 
of London," vol. i. p. 418. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGtJE. 



129 



Certain it is, the greatest part of the poor, or fami- 
lies who formerly lived by their labour, or by retail- 
trade, Uved now on charity ; and had there not been 
prodigious sums of money given by charitable well- 
minded Christians, for the support of such, the City 
could never have subsisted. There were, no ques- 
tion, accounts kept of their charity, and of the just 
distribution of it by the magistrates ; but as such 
multitudes of those very officers died, through whose 
hands it was distributed ; and also that, as I have 
been told, most of the accounts of those things were 
lost in the great fire which happened in the very 
next year, and which burnt even the chamberlain's 
office, and many of their papers ; so I could never 
come at the particular account, which I used great 
endeavours to have seen. 

It may, however, be a direction in case of the ap- 
proach of a like Visitation, which God keep the City 
from ! — I say, it may be of use to observe, that by 
the care of the Lord Mayor and aldermen, at that 
time, in distributing weekly great sums of money 
for relief of the Poor, a multitude of people, who 
would otherwise have perished, were relieved, and 
their lives preserved. And here let me enter into a 
brief state of the case of the poor at that time, and 
what was apprehended from them, from whence may 
be judged hereafter what may be expected, if the 
like distress should come upon the city. 

At the beginning of the Plague, when there was 
now no more hope, but that the whole City would be 
visited ; when, as I have said, all that had friends or 
estates in the country, retired with their families : 
and when, indeed, one would have thought the very 
City itself was running out of the gates, and that 
there would be nobody left behind ; you may be sure 
from that hour all trade, except such as related 



130 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



to immediate subsistence, was, as it were, at a full 
stop 

This is so lively a case, and contains in it so much 
of the real condition of the people, that I think I 
cannot be too particular in it ; and therefore I descend 
to the several arrangements or classes of people, who 
fell into immediate distress upon this occasion. For 
example : — 

1. — All Masterworkmen in manufactories : espeeiallY 

suchasbelonged to ornament, and the less necessary 
parts of the people's dress, clothes, and furniture for 
houses ; such as riband weavers, and other weavers ; 
gold and silver lace makers, and gold and silver vrire 
drawers^ sempstresses, milliners, shoe-makers, hat- 
makers, and glove-makers : also, upholsterers, 

* Lord Clarendon (in his History of bis own Life, which was 
bequeathed by his Heirs to the University of Oxford, and printed 
at the Clarendon Press, in 1759), when speaking of the year 1665, 
says : — There began now to appear another enemy, much more 
formidable than the Dutch, and more difficult to be struggled with : 
which was the Plague, that brake out in the winter, and made 
such an early progress in the spring, that though the weekly 
numbers did not rise high, and it appeared to be only in the out- 
skirts of the town, and in the most obscure alleys, amongst the 
poorest people ; yet the ancient men, who well remembered in 
what manner the last great Plague (which had been near forty 
years before) first brake out, and the progress it afterwards made, 
foretold a terrible Summer, and many of them removed their 
families out of the City to Country habitations ; when their neigh- 
bours laughed at their providence, and thought they might have 
stayed without danger, but they found shortly that they had done 
wisely.'* He next states, but with some incorrectness, that, — " the 
King prorogued the Parliament in April till September followiog, 
his ]SIajesty declaring that, if it pleased Crod to extinguish or allay 
the fierceness of the Plague, he should be glad to meet them then, 
— but if that Visitation increased, they should have notice by 
Proclamation, that they might not hazard themselves." Vide 
" Life of Edward, Eail of Clarendon : Continuation, pp. 249, 250. 
The Parliament was prorogued till June, (and not till September,) 
and then ncain till August ; and lastly, till October, when it met at 
Oxford. 



MEMOIRS or THE PEAGt'E. 



131 



joiners, cabinet-makers, looking-glass-makers, and 
innumerable trades which, depend upon such as 
these ; I say the Master workmen in such stopped 
their work, dismissed their journeymen and work- 
men, and all their dependants. 

2. - — As jlerchandizing was at a full stop, for very 
few ships ventured to come up the river, and none 
at all went out: so all the extraordinary officers 
of the customs, likewise the watermen, carmen, 
porters, and aU the poor, whose labour depended 
upon the merchants, were at once dismissed, and 
put out of business. 

3. — All the Tradesmen usually employed in buildhig 
or repairing of houses, were at a full stop, for the 
people were far from wanting to build houses, when 
so many thousand houses were at once stripped of 
their inhabitants ; so that this one article turned all 
the ordinary workmen of that kind out of business ; 
such as bricklayers, masons, carpenters, joiners, 
plasterers, painters, glaziers, smiths, plumbers ; 
and all the labourers depending on such. 

4. — As Navigation was at a stop, our ships neither 
coming in nor going out as before, so the, seam en 
were all out of employment, and many of them in 
the last and lowest degree of distress; and with 
the seamen, were all the several tradesmen and 
workmen belonging to and depending upon the 
building and fitting out of ships: such as ship- 
carpenters, caulkers, rope-makers, dry-coopers, 
s^il-makers, anchor -smiths, and other smiths; 
block-makers, gun-smiths, ship-chandlers, ship- 
carvers, and the like. Themasters of those, perhaps, 
might hve upon their substance; but the traders 
were universally at a stop, and consequently all their 
workmen discharged. Add to these, that the river 
was in a manner without boats, and all or most pan 



132 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



of the watermen^ lightermen, boat-builders, and 
lighter-builders, in like manner idle, and laid by. 
5. — All families retrenched their living as much as 
possible, as well those that fied, as those that 
stayed ; so that an innumerable m.ultitude of foot- 
men, ser^dng-men, shop-keepers, journeymen, 
merchants' book-keepers, and such sort of people, 
and especially poor maid-servants, were turned off, 
and left friendless and helpless, without employ- 
ment, and without habitation ; and this was really 
a dismal article. 

I might be more particular as to this part, but it 
may suffice to mention in general, that all trades 
being stopped, employment ceased: the labour, and 
by that the bread, of the poor was cut off; and at 
first, indeed, the cries of the poor were most lament- 
able to hear, though by the distribution of charity, 
theh misery that way was greatly abated. Many, 
indeed, fled into the country; but thousands of them 
ha^dng stayed in London, till nothing but desperation 
sent them away. Death overtook them on the road, 
and they served for no better than the messengers of 
Death; indeed, others carrying the Infection along 
with them, spread it very unhappily into the remotest 
parts of the kingdom^. 

Many of these were the miserable objects of despair, 
which I have mentioned before, and were removed 
by the destruction that followed. These might be 
said to perish, not by the Infection itself, but by the 
consequence of it: — namely, by hunger and distress, 

* Dr. Mead (in his " Discourse concerning Pestilential Conta- 
gion,") says: ** It was difficult to withdraw from London, while 
the country was everywhere afraid of strangers ; and the inns on 
the road were unsafe to lodge in for those who travelled from the 
City, where it could not be known but infection might be received 
in them by others come from the same place." — This information, 
however, must have been communicated to the Doctor, as he 
himself was not born until 1673. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 133 

and the want of all things; being without lodging, 
without money, without friends, without means to 
get their bread, and without any one to give it them, 
for many of them were without what we call legal 
settlements, and so could not claim of the parishes; 
and all the support they had, was by application to 
the Magistrates for relief, which relief was (to give 
the Magistrates their due) carefully and cheerfully 
administered, as they found it necessary; and those 
that stayed behind never felt the want and distress 
of that kind, which they felt who went away in the 
manner above noted. 

Let any one who is acquainted with what multi- 
tudes of people get their daily bread in this city by 
their labour, whether artificers or mere workmen; — 
I say, let any man consider what must be the mise- 
rable condition of this town, if, on a sudden, they 
should be all turned out of employment, that labour 
should cease, and wages for work be no more. 

This was the case with us at that time; and had 
not the sums of money, contributed in charity by 
well-disposed people of every kind, as well abroad as 
at home, been prodigiously great, it had not been in 
the power of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs to have 
kept the public peace : nor were they without appre- 
hensions as it was, that desperation should push the 
people upon tumults, and cause them to rifle the 
houses of rich men, and plunder the markets of pro- 
visions : in which case, the country people, who 
brought provisions very freely and boldly to town, 
would have been terrified from coming any more, 
and th^ town would have sunk under an unavoidable 
famine. 

But the prudence of my Lord Mayor, and the 
court of Aldermen, within the City, and of the 
Justices of peace in the out-parts, was such, and 
they were supported with money from all parts so 



134 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE . 



well, that the poor people were kept qiiiet, and their 
-^ants erer where reUeved, as far as Tvas possible to 
be clone. 

Tv^-Q things, besides this, contributed to prevent 
the mob doing any mischief: one was, that really 
the rich them selves had not laid up stores of provi- 
sions in theu' houses, as, indeed, they ought to have 
done, and which, if they had been wise enough to 
have done, and locked themselves entirely up, as 
some few did, they had perhaps escaped the disease 
better: but as it appeared they had not, so the mob 
had no notion of finding stores of provisions there, if 
they had broken in, as it is plain they were some- 
times very near doing, and which, if they had, they 
had finished the ruin of the whole City, for there 
were no regular troops to have withstood them; nor 
could the trained bands have been brought together 
to defend the city, no men being to be found to bear 
aiTus. But the vigilance of the Lord Mayor, and 
such magistrates as coidd be had (for some, even of 
the Aldermen, were dead, and some absent), prevented 
this; and they did it by the most kind and gentle 
methods they could think of, as particularly by 
relieving the most desperate with money, and putting 
others into business, and particularly that employ- 
ment of watching houses that were infected and shut 
up; and as the number of these was very great, for, 
it was said, there was at one time ten thousand houses 
shut up; and every house had two watchmen to 
guard it, viz., one by night and the other by day; 
this gave opportunity to employ a very great number 
of poor men at a time. 

The women and servants that were turned off from 
their pLaces, were likewise employed as nurses to tend 
the sick in all places; and this took off a very great 
number of them. 

And which, though a melancholy article in itself, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



135 



yet was a deliverance in its kind, namely, the Plague, 
whicli raged in a dreadful manner from the middle 
of August to the middle of October, carried ofP, in 
that tim^e, thirty or forty thousand of these rery 
people, who, had they been left, would certainly have 
been an insufferable burden, by their poverty : that is 
to say, the whole City could not have supported the 
expense of them, or have provided food for them ; and 
they would, in time, have been even driven to the 
necessity of plundering either the City itself, or the 
country adjacent, to have subsisted themselves; which 
wo aid, first or last, have put the whole nation, as well 
as the City, into the utmost terror and confusion. 

It was observable then, that this calamity of the 
people made them very humble; for now, for about 
nine weeks together, there died near a thousand in a 
day, one day with another, even by the account of 
the weekly Bills, which, yet I have reason to be 
assured, never gave a full account, by many thou- 
sands ; the confusion being such, and the carts 
working in the dark when they carried the dead, 
that in some places no account at all was kept, but 
they worked on; the clerks and sextons not attending 
for weeks together, and not knowing what number 
they carried. This account is verified by the follow- 
ing Bills of ^lortality. 

Of all Disease?. Of the Plague. 



Aug. 


8 to Aug. 15 


5319 


3880 


to 22 


5568 


4237 




to 29 


7496 


6102 


Ang. 


29 to Sept. 5 


8252 


6988 


to 12 


7690 


6544 




to 19 


8297 


7165 




to 26 


6460 


5533 


Sept. 


26 to Oct. 3 


5720 


4929 




to 10 


5068 


4327 






59,870 


49,705 



136 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



So that the gross of the peojDle were earned off in 
these two months; for as the whole number which 
was brought in to die of the Plague, was but 68,590 , 
here is 50,000 of them, withm a trifle, in two months ; 
1 say 50,000, because, as there wants 295 in the 
number abore^ so there wants two days of two 
months in the account of time*. 

Now, when I say that the parish officers did not 
give in a fall account, or were not to be depended 
upon for their account, let any one but consider how 
men could be exact in such a time of dreadful dis- 
tress, and when many of them were taken sick 
themselves, and perhaps died m the very time when 
their accounts were to be given in ; I mean the 
Parish-Clerks, besides inferior Officers: — for though 
these poor men ventured at all hazards, yet they were 
far from being exempt from the common calamity, 
— especially if it be true, that the parish of Stepney 
had, within the year, one hundred and sixteen 
sextons, grave-diggers, and their assistants, that is to 
say, bearers, bellmen, and diivers of carts for carry- 
mg off the dead bodies -h. 

Indeed the work was not of a nature to allow them 
leisure to take an exact tale of the dead bodies, 
which were all huddled together in the dark into a 
Pit: which Pit, or Trench, no man could come nigh 
but at the utmost peril. I observed often, that in 

* There is a slight mistake in the above calculation ; for the 
period from Aug. 8 to Oct. 10, manifestly exceeds two months bv 
two days, instead of so far falling short of that time. 

It appears from the Parish Register of Stepney, that 154 
persons were buried there in the Plague year in one day, on Sep- 
tember the 11th. From the great numbers which died of the 
Plague, a large piece of ground on the north side of Mile-end Poad, 
near the Dog. row, was appropriated for a burial-place. It was 
afterwards converted into a nursery garden ; and remained so until 
the beginning of the present century. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



137 



the parishes of Aldgate and Cripplegate, Whiteehapel, 
and Stepney, there were five, six, seven, and eight 
hundred in a week in the Bills ; whereas, if we may- 
believe the opinion of those that hved in the City all 
the time, as well as I, there died sometimes 2000 a 
week in those parishes; and I saw it under the hand 
of one that made as strict an examination into that 
part as he could, that there really died an hundred 
thousand people of the Plague in it [London] that 
one year, whereas in the Bills, the articles of the 
Plague formed but 68,590. 

If I may be allowed to give my opinion, by what I 
saw with my eyes, and heard from other people that 
were eye-witnesses, I do verily believe the same, viz. 
that there died, at least, 100,000 of the Plague only, 
besides other distempers, and besides those which 
died in the fields and highways, and secret places, 
out of the compass of the communication, as it was 
called, and who were not put down in the Bills, 
though they really belonged to the body of the in- 
habitants It was known to us all, that abundance 



* Lord Clarendon says, that " The frequent deaths of the Clerks 
and Sextons of Parishes, hindered the exact account of every week; 
but that which left it without any certainty, was the vast number 
that was buried iu the fields, of which no account was kept. Then, 
of the Anabaptists and other sectaries, who abounded in the city, 
very few left their habitations ; and muititudes of them died, 
whereof no Churchwarden or other officer had notice ; but they 
found burials according to their own fancies, in small gardens, or 
the next fields.'^ He further states, — but with evident exaggera- 
tion, since the Bills to which he refers return the total number of 
the deaths in the Plague year, at less than 100,000, — that 
although by the Weekly Bills, there appear to have died above 
one hundred and three-score thousand persons ; yet many, who 
could compute very well, concluded that there were in truth double 
that number who died; and that, in one week, when the Bill men- 
tioned only six thousand, there bad, in truth, fourteen thousand 
I died."— Vide Life " &c. Continuation, p. 326. 



138 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGITE. 



of poor despairing creatures, wlio had the Distemper 
upon thenij and were groT^ii stupid or melancholy bv 
their miserv, as many were, vrandered awav into the 
fields and woods, and nito several uncouth places, — 
almost any where, to creep into a bush, or hedge, and 

DIE. 

The inhabitants of the villages adjacent vv'ould, in 
pity, carry them food, and set it at a distance, that 
they might fetch it, if they were able, and sometimes 
they were not able ; and the next time they went, 
they should find the poor wretches he dead, and the 
food untouched. The number of these miserable 
objects were many, and I know so many that perished 
thus, and so exactly where, that I believe I could go 
to the veiy place and dig their bones up still: for the 
country people would go and dig a hole at a distance 
from them, and then with long poles, and hooks at 
the end of them, drag the bodies into these Pits, and 
then throw the earth in, from as far as they could 
cast it, to cover them ; taking notice how the v^ind 
blew, and so coming on that side which the seamen 
call to icr/al-K'ard, that the scent of the bodies might 
blow from them: and thus great numbers went out 
of the world, who were never known, or any account 
of them taken; as well T^ithin the Bills of Mortality, 
as without. 

This, indeed, I had, m the main, only from the 
relation of others, for I seldom walked into the fields, 
except towards Bethnal-green and Hackney, or as 
hereafter: — but when I did walk, I always saw a 
great many poor wanderers at a distance ; but I could 
know little of their cases ; for whether it were in the 
street, or in the fields, if we had seen anybody coming, 
it was a general method to walk away ; yet I believe 
the account is exactly true. 

As this puts me upon mentioning my walking the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGrE. 



139 



streets and fields, I cannot omit taking notice what a 
desolate place the Citv was at that time. The great 
Street I lived in, which is kno^ni to be one of the 
broadest of all the streets of London, I mean of the 
suburbs, as well as the liberties ; all the side where 
the butchers lived, especially without the Bars, was 
more like a green Field than a paved Street, and the 
people generally went in the middle with the horses 
and carts. It is true, that the farthest end, towards 
T\Tiite-chapel church, was not all paved, but even the 
part that was paved was full of grass also ; but this 
need not seem strange, since the great streets within 
the city, such as Leadenhall-street, Bishop sgate-street, 
Cornhill, and even the Exchange itself, had grass 
growing in them in several places. Neither cart nor 
coach was seen in the streets from morning to even- 
ing, except some country carts, to bring roots and 
beans, or peas, hay, and straw, to the market, and 
those but very few, compared to what was usual. 
As for Coaches, they were scarce used, but to carry 
sick people to the Pest-house, and to other hospitals, 
and some few to carry Physicians to such places as 
they thought fit to venture to visit ; for really coaches 
were dangerous things, and people did not care to 
venture into them, because they did not know who 
might have been carried in them last ; and sick in- 
fected people were, as I have said, ordinarily carried 
in them to the Pest-houses, and sometimes people 
expired in them as they went along ^. 

It is true, when the Infection came to such a height 
as I have now mentioned, there were very few Phy- 
sicians that cared to stir abroad to sick houses, and 
very many of the most eminent of the faculty were 

* Pepyg, under the date June 23rd, thus notices the danofer : — 
" Home by hackney coach, which is become a very dangerous 
passage now-a-days, the sickness increasing mightily." 



140 



MEZVIOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



dead, as vrell as tlie surgeons also : for now it was 
indeed a dismal time, and for about a month together, 
not taking any notice of the Bills of Mortahty, I 
believe there did not die less than 1500 or l/OO a 
day, one day with another. 

One of the worst days we had in the whole time, 
as I thought, was m the beginning of September, 
when, indeed, good people began to think that God 
was resolved to make a full end of the people in this 
miserable city. This was at that time when the 
Plague was fully come into the eastern parishes. 
The parish of Aldgate, if I may give my opinion, 
buried above a thousand a- week, for two weeks, 
though the Bills did not say so many ; but it sur- 
rounded me at so dismal a rate, that there was not a 
house in twenty uninfected. In the Minories, in 
Homidsditch, and in those parts of Aldgate parish 
about the Butcher-row, and the alleys over against 
me, I say, in those places. Death reigned in every 
Corner, ^liite-chapel parish was in the same con- 
dition, and though much less than the parish I lived 
in, yet buried near 600 a week by the Bills; and in 
my opinion, near twice as many, ^liole famihes, 
and indeed whole streets of families, were swept away 
together ; insomuch, that it was frequent for neigh- 
bours to call to the bellman to go to such and such 
houses^ and fetch out the people, for that they were 
all dead. 

And, indeed, the work of removing the dead bodies 
by carts was now grown so very odious and dan- 
gerous, that it was complained of, that the bearers 
did not take care to clear such houses where all the 
inhabitants were dead ; but that sometimes the bo- 
dies lay several days unburied, till the neighbouring 
families were offended \rith the stench, and conse- 
quently infected; and this neglect of the officers was 



MEMOIRS OE THE PLAGUE. 



141 



such, that the Churchwardens and Constables were 
summoned to look after it ; and even the Justices of 
the hamlets were obliged to venture their lives among 
them, to quicken and encourage them, for innumer- 
able of the bearers died of the Distemper, infected by 
the bodies they were obliged to come so near : and 
had it not been that the number of poor people who 
wanted employment, and wanted bread (as I have 
said before), was so great, that necessity drove them 
to undertake anything, and venture anything, they 
would never have found people to be employed ; and 
then the bodies of the dead would have lain above 
ground, and have perished and rotted in a dreadful 
manner. 

But the Magistrates cannot be enough commended 
in this, that they kept such good order for the bury- 
ing of the dead, that as fast as any of those they 
employed to carry off and bury the dead fell sick or 
died, as was many times the case, they immediately 
supplied the places with others, which by reason of 
the great number of poor that was left out of busi- 
ness, as above, was not hard to do. This occasioned, 
that notwithstanding the infinite number of people 
who died, and were sick, almost all together, yet they 
were always cleared away and carried oif every night : 
so that it was never to be said of London that ^the 
Living were not able to bury the Dead.' 

As the desolation became greater during those 
i terrible times, so the amazement of the people in- 
! creased ; and a thousand unaccountable things they 
would do in the violence of their fright, as others did 
the same in the agonies of their distemper. And 
j this part was very affecting : some went roaring and 
I crying, and wringing their hands along the street ; 
1 some would go praying, and lifting up their hands 



i 



142 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. S 

to Heaven, calling upon God for mercy. I cannot 
say, indeed, whether this was not in their distraction ; 
but be it so, it was still an indication of a more 
serious mind, when they had the use of their senses, 
and was much better, even as it was, than the fright- 
ful yellings and cryings that every day, and especially 
in the evenings, were heard in some streets. I sup- 
pose the world has heard of the famous Solomon 
Eagle, an Enthusiast ; he, though not infected at all, 
but in his Head, went about denouncing of Judg- 
ment upon the city in a frightful manner ; sometimes 
quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on 
his head. What he said, or pretended, indeed, I 
could not learn. 

I will not say whether that Clergyman was dis- 
tracted or not, or whether he did it in pure zeal for 
the poor people, who went every evening through 
the streets of White-chapel, and with his hands lifted 
up, repeated that part of the hturgy of the church 
continually, Spare us^ good Lord, spare thy People 
whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious 
Blood;'' I say, I cannot speak positively of these 
things, because these were only the dismal objects 
which represented them^selves to me as I looked 
through my chamber windows (for I seldom opened 
the casements), while I confined myself within doors 
during that most violent raging of the Pestilence ; 
when, indeed, as I have said, many began to think, 
and even to say, that there would none escape ; and 
indeed I began to think so too ; and therefore kept 
within doors for about a fortnight, and never stirred 
out; bat I could not hold it. Besides, there were 
some people who, notwithstanding the danger, did 
not omit publicly to attend the worship of God, even 
in the most dangerous times ; and though it is true 



1 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



143 



that a great many Clergymen did shut up their 
Churches, and fled as other people did for the safety 
of their lives, — yet, all did not do so : some ventured 
to officiate, and to keep up the Assemblies of the 
People by constant prayers ; and sometimes sermons 
or brief exhortations to repentance and reformation, 
and this as long as any would come to hear them ; 
and dissenters did the like also, and even in the very 
churches, where the parish ministers were either 
dead or fled; — nor was there any room for making 
difl*erence, at such a time as this was. 

It was indeed a lamentable thing to hear the 
miserable lamentations of poor dying creatures, calling 
out for Ministers to comfort them and pray with 
them, to counsel them, and to direct them ; calling 
out to God for pardon and mercy, and confessing 
aloud their past sins. It would make the stoutest 
heart bleed to hear how many warnings were then 
given by dying Penitents to others, not to put off 
and delay their repentance to the day of distress; 
that such a time of calamity as this, was no time for 
repentance, was no time to call upon God. I wish I 
could repeat the very sound of those groans, and of 
those exclamations that I heard from some poor dying 
creatures when in the height of their agonies and 
distress; and that I could make him that reads this, 
hear, as I imagine I now hear them, for the sound 
seems still to ring in my ears. 

If I could but tell this part in such moving accents 
as should alarm the very soul of the reader, I should 
rejoice that I recorded these things, however short 
and imperfect. 

It pleased God that I was still spared, and very 
hearty and sound in health, but very impatient of 
being pent up within doors without air, as I had 



144 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



been for fourteen days, or thereabouts ; and I could | 
not restrain myself, but I would go to carry a letter f 
for my brother to the Post-house : then it was, in- 
deed, that I observed a profound silence in the streets. 
When I came to the Post-house, as I went to put | 
in my letter, I saw a man stand in one corner of the 
yard, and talking to another at a window, and a 
third had opened a door belonging to the office. In 
the middle of the yard lay a small leather purse, with 
two keys hanging at it, and money in it, but nobody 
would meddle with it. I asked how long it had lain 
there ; the man at the window said it had lain almost } 
an hour, but they had not meddled with it, because 
they did not know but the person who dropped it 
might come back to look for it. I had no such need 
of money, nor was the sum so big, that I had any 
inclination to meddle with it to get the money at 
the hazard it might be attended with ; so I seemed to 
go away, when the man who had opened the door 
said he would take it up ; but so, that if the right 
owner came for it he would be sure to have it. So 
he went in and fetched a pail of water, and set it 
down hard by the purse, then went again and fetched 
some gunpowder, and cast a good deal of powder upon 
the purse, and then made a train from that which he 
had thrown loose upon the purse; the train reached 
about two yards. After this he goes in a third 
time, and fetches out a pair of tongs red hot, and 
which he had prepared, I suppose, on purpose ; and 
first setting fire to the train of powder, that singed 
the purse, and also smoked the air sufficiently : but 
he was not content with that ; but he then takes up 
the purse with the tongs, holding it so long till the 
tongs burnt through the purse, and then he shook 
the money out into the pail of water, so he carried it 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



145 



in. The money, as I remember, was about thirteen 
shiUings, and some smooth groats, and brass 
farthings 

There might, perhaps, have been several poor 
people, as I have observed above, that would have 
been hardy enough to have ventured for the sake of 
the money ; but you may easily see, by what I have 
observed, that the few people who were spared were 
very careful of themselves at that time when the 
distress was so exceeding great. 

Much about the same time, I walked out into the 
fields towards Bow ; for I had a great mind to see 
how things were managed in the river, and among 
the ships ; and as I had some concern in shipping, I 
had a notion that it had been one of the best ways 
of securing one's self from the Infection, to have 
retired into a ship ; and musing how to satisfy my 
curiosity in that point, I turned away over the fields, 
from Bow to Bromley, and down to Blackwall, 
to the stairs, which are there for landing or taking 
water. 

Here I saw a poor Man walking on the bank, or 
sea-wall, as they call it, by himself. I walked a 
while also about, seeing the houses all shut up ; at 
last I fell into some talk, at a distance, with this 
poor Man ; first, I asked him how the people did 
thereabouts? ^^Alas 1 Sir," says he, "almost deso- 

* The following singular Advertisement appeared in the " Intel- 
ligencer," No. 51 . — This is to notify that the Master of the Cock 
and Bottle, comnaonly called the Cock Alehouse, at Temple Bar, 
hath dismissed his Servants and shut up his house, for this Long 
Vacation, intending (God willing) to return at Michaelmas next, so 
that all persons whatsoever who have any Accompts with the said 
Master, or Farthings belonging to the said house, are desired 
to repair thither hefore the 8th of this instant July, and they shall 
receive satisfaction." — The Cock is still a well-known and much 
frequented House, on the north side of Fleet Street, between Bell 
Yard and Chancery Lane. 

L 



146 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



late ; all dead or sick. Here are rery few families 
in this part, or in that Tillage/' pointing at Poplar, 
where half of them are not dead already, and the 
rest sick." Then he pointed to one house, — There 
they are all dead," said he, ''and the house stands 
open ; nobody dares go into it. A poor thief 
ventured in to steal somethhig, but he paid dear for 
his theft, for he was earned to the church-yard too, 
last night." Then he pointed to several other houses. 
— There," says he, ''they are all dead, the man 
and his vdfe, and fire children ; and there, they are 
shut up ; you see a watchman at the door:" and so 
of other houses. "Why," says I, "what do you 
here all alone ? " "T\Tiy," he replied, " I am a poor 
desolate man; it has pleased God I am not yet visited, 
though my family is, and one of my children dead." 
" How do you mean, then," said I, " that you are 
not visited ? " " Why," says he, " that is my house," 
pointing to a very little low boarded house, " and 
there my poor wife and two children Hve," continued 
he, " if they may be said to live ; for my wife and 
one of the children are visited, but I do not come at 
them." And with that word I saw the tears run 
very plentifully down his face; and so they did down 
mine too I assure you. 

" But;" said I, " why do you not come at them ? 
how can you abandon your own flesh and blood ? " 
"Oh I Sir," says he, "the Lord forbid ; I do not 
abandon them ; I work for them as much as I am 
able ; and blessed be the Lord, I keep them from 
want ;" and with that I obseiwed he lifted up his 
eyes to Heaven, with a coimtenance, that presently 
told me I had happened on a man who was no 
h^-pocrite, but a serious religious good man; and his 
ejaculation was an expression of thankfulness that, 
in such a condition as he was in, he should be able 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



147 



to say his family did not want. '^Well/' says I, 
" honest man, that is a great mercy as things go now 
with the poor : but how do you live then, and how 
are you kept from the dreadful calamity that is now 
upon us all ? " " Why, Sir,'^ says he, " I am a 
waterman, and there is my boat; and the boat serves 
me for a house; I work in it in the day, and I sleep 
in it in the night; — and what I get, I lay down upon 
that stone, says he, shewing me a broad stone on the 
other side of the street, a good way from his house, 
and then I halloo, and call to them till I make 
them hear; and they come and fetch it." 

Well, friend," says I, but how can you get any 
money as a waterman ? does any body go by water 
these times ? " Yes, Sir," says he, "in the way I 
am employed there does. Do you see there, where 
five Ships lie at anchor," pointing down the river, a 
good way below the town : " and do you see," says 
he, " eight or ten Ships he at the chain there, and 
at anchor yonder ? " pointing above the town. 
**A11 those Ships have families on board, of their 
merchants and owners and such hke, who have 
locked themselves up, and live on board, close shut 
j in, for fear of the Infection ; and I tend on them to 
I fetch things for them, carry letters and do what is 
absolutely necessary, that they may not be obhged 
to come on shore ; and every night I fasten my boat 
onboard one of the ship's boats, and there I sleep, 
by myself, and, blessed be God, I am preserved 
i hitherto." 

"Well," said I, "friend, but will they let you 

I come on board, after you have been on shore here, 
when this is such a terrible place, and so infected as 

litis?" 

" Why, as to that," said he, " I very seldom go 

II up the ship's side, but dehver what I bring to their 

L 2 



148 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



boatj or lie by the side, and they hoist it on board : 
if I did, I think they are in no danger from me, for 
I never go into any house on shore, or touch any 
body, no, not of my own family ; but I fetch pro- 
visions for them." 

"Nay," says I, " but that may be worse, for you 
must have those provisions of somebody or other : 
and since all this part of the town is so Infected, it is 
dangerous so much as to speak with any body ; for 
the village," said I, is, as it were, the beginning of 
London, though it be at some distance from it.^' 

That is true," added he, " but you do not un- 
derstand me right; I do not buy provisions for them 
here : I row up to Greenwich and buy fresh meat 
there, and sometimes I row down the river to Wool- 
wich and buy there; then I go to single farm-houses 
on the Kentish side, where I am known, and buy 
fowls, and eggs, and butter, and bring to the ships, 
as they direct me, sometimes one, sometimes the 
other : I seldom come on shore here ; and I came 
now only to call to my wife, and hear how my little 
family do, and give them a little money, which I 
received last night." 

" Poor man ! " said I, " and how much hast thou 
gotten for them ? " 

" I have gotten four shillings," said he, " which 
is a great sum, as things go now with poor men ; but 
they have given me a bag of bread too, and a salt fish 
and some flesh; so all helps out." 

Well," said I, " and have you given it them 
yet?" 

No," said he, '^but I have called, and my wife 
has answered, that she cannot come out yet, but in 
half an hour she hopes to come, and I am waiting 
for her. Poor woman ! " says he, " she is brought 
sadly down ; she has a swelling, and it is broke, and 



I 
i 



1 

\ 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



149 



I hope she will recover ; but I fear the child will die : 

but it is the Lord ! " Here he stopt; and wept 

very much. 

Well, honest friend/' said I, thou hast a sure 
Comforter, if thou hast brought thyself to be re- 
signed to the will of God ; he is dealing with us all 
in judgment." 

Oh, Sir," says he, it is infinite mercy, if any 
of us are spared ; and who am I, to repine ? " 

Sayest thou so," said I, and how much less is 
my faith than thine ! " — And here my heart smote 
me, suggesting how much better this poor man's 
foundation was, on which he stayed in the danger, 
than mine ; that he had no where to flee to ; that he 
had a family to bind him to attendance, which I had 
not ; and mine was mere presumption, his a true 
dependence, and a courage resting on God ; and yet, 
that he used all possible caution for his safety. 

I turned a little way from the man, while these 
thoughts engaged me, for, indeed, I could no m.ore 
refrain from tears than he. 

At length, after some, farther talk, the poor 
Woman opened the door, and called, Eohert, Robert : 
he answered, and bid her stay a few moments, and 
he would come ; so he ran down the common stairs 
to his boat, and fetched up a sack in which were the 
provisions he had brought from the Ships ; and when 
he returned, he hallooed again ; then he went to the 
great stone which he showed me, and emptied the 
sack, and laid all out, everything by themselves, and 
then retired ; and his wife came with a httle boy to 
fetch 'them away ; and he called, and said, such a 
captain had sent such a thing, and such a captain 
such a thing ; and at the end adds, God has sent 
it all : give thanks to him." When the poor woman 
had taken up all, she was so weak she could not 



150 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



carry it at once in^ though the weight was not much 
neither ; so she left the biscuit, which was in a Uttle 
bag, and left her little boy to watch it till she came 
again. 

Well, but," says 1 to him, " did you leave her 
the four shillings too, which you said was your 
week's pay ? 

Yes, yes," says he, " you shall hear her own it." 
So he calls again, MacJiel, Rachel, (which was, it 
seems, her name,) did you take lip the money ? " 
" Yes," said she. How much was it ? " said he. 

Four shillings and a groat," said she. " Well, 
well," says he, ^' the Lord keep you all ; " and so 
he turned to go away. 

As I could not refrain from contributing tears to 
this man's story, so neither could I refrain my charity 
for his assistance ; so I called him, — Hark thee, 
friend, come hither; for I believe thou art in health, 
that I may venture thee ; " so I pulled out my hand, 
which was in my pocket before ; — *^Here," says I, 

go and call thy Rachel once more, and give her a 
little more comfort from me. God will never forsake 
a family that trust in him as thou dost." So I gave 
him four other shillings, and bade him go lay them 
on the stone, and call his wife. 

I have not words to express the poor man's thank- 
fulness, neither could he express it himself, but by 
tears running down his face. He called his wife, 
and told her God had moved the heart of a stranger, 
upon hearing their condition, to give them all that 
money ; and a great deal more such as that, he said 
to her. The woman too made signs of the like 
thankfulness, as well to Heaven as to me, and joy- 
fully picked it up ; and I parted with no Money all 
that Year that I thought better bestowed. 

I then asked the poor man if the Distemper had 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



151 



not reached to Greenwich : He said it had not, till 
about a fortnight before ; but that then he feared it 
had ; but that it was only at that end of the town 
which lay south towards Deptford bridge ; that he 
went only to a butcher's shop and a grocer's, where 
he generally bought such things as they sent him for i 
but was very careful*. 

I asked him then, how it came to pass, that those 
people who had so shut themselves up in the Ships 
had not laid in sufficient stores of all things neces- 
sary ? He said some of them had, but on the other 
hand, some did not come on board till they were 
frighted into it, and till it was too dangerous for 
them to go to the proper people to lay in quantities 
of things ; and that he waited on two Ships, (which 
he showed me,) that had laid in little or nothing but 



* Evelyn, in some letters to Lord Viscount Cornbery, dated from 
his own residence at Say's Court, Deptford, on the 9th and 12th of 
September, 1665, thus notices the devastation of that time. — 

After 6978 (and possibly half as many more concealed) which 
the Pestilence has mowed down in London this week, near thirty 
houses are visited in this miserable village, whereofF one has been 
the very nearest to my dwelling. — It was Saturday last ere my 
courageous wife could be persuaded to take the alarm, but she ia 
now fled, with most of my family. — If the malignity of this sad 
Contagion spend no faster before winter, the calamity will be inde- 
scribable.— -My very heart turns within me at the contemplation of 
our calamity. — God give the repentance of David to the Times of 
David ! We have all added some weights to this burden ; Ingra- 
titude and Luxude, and the too, too soon oblivion of Miracles." — 
Evelyn's "Memoirs," &c. vol. ii. pp. 157-160. — The number of 
persons recorded to have died of the Plague, at Deptford, in 1665, 
is 374 ; but in the following year, it was still more fatal there, 522 
persons becoming its victims. 

Evelyn writes thus, under the date April 15th, 1666 : — " Our 
parish was now more infected with the Plague than ever, and so was 
all the country above, tho' (it had) almost quite ceased in Lon- 
don." See " Memoirs," &c. vol. i. p. 386. 



io2 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



biscuit bread, and ship beer; and that lie bad bougbt 
every thing else almost for them. I asked him if there 
were any more Ships that had separated themselves 
as those had done ? He told me, Yes, all the way 
up from the pomt, right against Greenwich, to within 
the shore of Limehouse and Redriff, all the Ships 
that could have room rid two and two in the middle 
of the stream, and that some of them had several 
families on board/' I asked him if the Distemper 
had not reached them ? He said, he believed it 
had not, except two or three Ships, whose people 
had not been so watchful to keep the seamen from 
going on shore, as others had been ; '' and he said^ 

it was a veiy fine sight to see how the Ships lay 
up the Pool.'' 

T^Tien he said he was going over to Greenvrich, as 
soon as the tide began to come in, I asked him if he 
would let me go with him, and bring me back ; for 
that I had a great mind to see how the Ships were 
ranged, as he had told me. He told me, if I would 
assure him, on the word of a Christian and of an 
honest man, that I had not the Distemper, he would. 
I assured him that I had not, that it had pleased 
God to preserve me, that I lived in White-chapel, 
but was too impatient of being so long within doors, 
and that I had ventured out so far for the refresh- 
ment of a little air ; but that none in my house had 
so much as been touched with it. 

Well, Sir," says he, " as your Charity has been 
moved to pity me and my poor family, sure you can- 
not have so little pity left, as to put yourself into my 
boat if you were not sound in health, which would 
be nothing less than kilHng me, and ruining my whole 
family." The poor Man troubled me so much, when 
he spoke of his family with such a sensible concern, 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



153 



and in such an affectionate manner, that I could not 
satisfy myself, at first, to go at all. I told him I 
would lay aside my curiosity rather than make him 
uneasy ; though I was sure, and very thankful for 
it, that I had no more Distemper upon me, than the 
freshest man in the world. Well, he would not have 
me put it off neither, but to let me see how confi- 
dent he was that I was just to him, he now impor- 
tuned me to go ; so when the tide came up to his 
boat, I went m, and he carried me to Greenwich. 
While he bought the things which he had in his 
charge to buy, I walked up to the top of the Hill, 
under which the town stands, and on the east side of 
the town, to get a prospect of the River : but it was 
a surprising sight to see the number of Ships which 
lay in rows, two and two, and in some places, two or 
three such lines in the breadth of the River, and this 
not only up quite to the town, between the houses 
which we call Ratcliff and Redriff, which they name 
the Pool, but even down the whole River, as far as 
the head of Long Reach, which is as far as the Hills 
give us leave to see it. 

I cannot guess at the number of Ships, but I think 
there must be several hundred Sail ; and I could not 
but applaud the contrivance ; for ten thousand people 
and more, who attended ship affairs, were certainly 
sheltered here from the violence of the contagion, and 
lived very safe and very easy. 

I returned to my own Dwelling very well satisfied 
with my day's journey, and particularly with the 
poor Man ; also I rejoiced to see that such httle 
Sanctuaries were provided for so many families on 
board, in a time of such desolation. I observed also, 
that as the violence of the Plague had increased, so 
the Ships which had families on board, removed and 
went farther off, till, as I was told, some went quite 



154 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

away to sea, and put into such harbours and safe 
roads on the north coast, as they could best come at. 

But it was also true that all the people who thus 
left the land, and lived on board the Ships, were not 
entirely safe from the Infection, for many died, and 
were thrown over-board, into the river, some in cof- 
fins ; and some, as I heard, without coffins, whose 
bodies were seen sometimes to drive up and down 
with the tide in the river. 

But, I believe, I may venture to say, that in those 
Ships which were thus infected, it either happened 
where the people had recourse to them too late, and 
did not fly to the ship till they had stayed too long 
on shore, and had the Distemper upon them, though, 
perhaps, they might not perceive it ; and so the Dis- 
temper did not come to them on board the ships, but 
they really carried it with them : or, it was in those 
ships where the poor watermen said they had not had 
time to furnish themselves with provisions, but were 
obliged to send often on shore to buy what they had 
occasion for, or suffered boats to come to them from 
the shore : and so the Distemper was brought insen- 
sibly among them. 

And here I cannot but take notice that the strange 
temper of the people of London at that time con- 
tributed extremely to their own destruction. The 
Plague began, as I have observed, at the other end 
of the town, namely, in Long-acre, Drury-lane, 
&c., and came on towards the City very gradually 
and slowly. It was felt at first in December, then 
again in February, then again in April, and always 
but a very little at a time ; then it stopt till May, and 
even the last week in May there were but 17, and 
all at that end of the town [except two] ; and all this 
while, even so long as till there died about 3000 a 
week, had the people in Redriff, and in Wapping, and 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 155 



Rat cliff, on both sides the river, and almost all South- 
wark-side, a mighty fancy that they should not be 
visited, or at least, that it would not be so violent 
among them. Some people fancied the smell of the 
pitch and tar, and such other things, as oil, and resin, 
and brimstone, which is so much used by all trades 
relating to shipping, would preserve them. Others 
argued it, because it was in its extremest violence 
in Westminster and the parishes of St. Giles and 
St. Andrew, &c., and began to abate again, before it 
came among them, which was true indeed, in part : 
for example : — 

From the 8th to the 15th of August. ^""^tek!^^ 
St. Giles's in Stepney . . .1971 

the Fields J "^^^ St. Mag. Bermondsey . 24 I 4030 
Cripplegate 886 Rotherhithe . . 3 J 

From the 15th to the 22nd of August. ^""^eek!^ 

St. Giles's in "1 . Stepney . . . 2731 
the Fields J ^ ' St. Mag. Bermondsey . 36 I 5319 
Cripplegate • 847 Rotherhithe . . 2 J 

N.B. That it was observed the numbers men- 
tioned in Stepney parish, at that time, were gene- 
rally all on that side where Stepney parish joined to 
Shoreditch, which we now call Spittle-fields, where 
the parish of Stepney comes up to the very wall of 
Shoreditch church-yard; and the Plague at this time 
was abated at St. Giles's in the Fields, and raged 
most violently in Cripplegate, Bishop sgate, and Shore- 
ditch parishes, but there were not ten people a week 
that died of it, in all that part of Stepney parish 
which takes in Limehouse and RatclifP-highway, 
and which are now the parishes of Shadwell and 
Wapping, even to St. Katharine's by the Tower, 
till after the whole month of August was expired; 



156 



3IEM0IRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



but they paid for it afterwards, as I shall observe 
bj-and-by. 

This, I say, made the people of Kedriff and "^'ap- 
piiig, Eatcliff and Liniehouse, so secure, and flatter 
themselves so muchvdth the Plague's going off with- 
out reaching them, that they took no care either to 
flee into the country, or shut themselves up; nay, so 
far vrere they from stirring, that they rather received 
their friends and relations from the City into their 
houses ; and several from other places really took 
sanctuary in that part of the town, as a place of 
safety, and as a place which they thought God would 
pass over, and not visit as the rest was visited. 

And this was the reason, that when it came upon 
them they were more surprised, more unprovided, 
and more at a loss what to do, than they were in 
other places, for when it came among them really, 
and with violence, as it did indeed in September and 
October, there was then no stirring out into the 
country, nobody would suffer a stranger to come near 
them, no, nor near the towns where they dwelled; 
and, as I have been told, several that wandered into 
the coimtry, on Surrey side, v\-ere found starved to 
death in the woods and commons, that country being 
more open and more woody than any other part so 
near London ; especially about Norwood, and the 
parishes of Camberwell, Dullege [Dulwich], and 
Lusum [Lewisham], where, it seems, nobody durst 
relieve the poor distressed people for fear of the 
Infection. 

This 2n otion having, as I said, prevailed with the 
people in that part of the to^vn, was in part the 
occasion, as I said before, that they had recourse to 
Ships for their retreat; and where they did this 
early, and vrith prudence, furnishing themselves so 
with provisions, that they had no need to go on shore 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



157 



for supplies, nor suffer boats to come on board to 
bring them ; I say, where they did so, they had 
certainly the safest retreat of any people whatsoever. 
But the distress was such, that people ran on board 
in their fright, T^ithont bread to eat ; and some into 
Ships, that had no men on board to remove them 
farther off, or to take the boat and go down the river 
to buy provisions, where it might be done safely: 
and these often suffered, and were infected on board 
as much as on shore. 

As the richer sort got into Ships, so the lower rank 
got into hoys, smacks, hghters and fishing-boats, and 
many, especially watermen, lay in their boats : but 
those made sad work of it, especially the latter, for, 
going abont for provison, and perhaps to get their 
subsistence, the Infection got in among them, and 
made a feai-fid havock. Many of the watermen died 
alone in theh wherries, as they rid at their roads, as 
well above bridge as below, and were not found, 
sometimes, till they were not in condition for anybody 
to touch or come near them. 

Indeed the distress of the people at this sea-faring 
end of the tovni was very deplorable, and deseiwed 
the greatest commiseration. But alas I this was a 
time when every one's private safety lay so near 
them, that they had no room to pity the distresses 
of others; for every one had Death, as it were, at his 
Door, and many even in their families, and knew not 
what to do, nor whither to flee. 

This I say took away all compassion. Self-pre- 
servation, indeed, appeared here to be the first lav/, 
for the children ran away from their parents, as 
they languished in the ntmost distress ; and m some 
places, though not so frequent as the other, parents 
did the like to their children : nay, some dreadful 
examples there were, and particularly two in one 



158 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



week, of distressed Mothers, raving and distracted, 
killing tlieir own children ; one whereof was net far 
off from where I dwelt; the poor lunatic creature not 
living herself long enough to be sensible of the sin of 
what she had done, much less to be punished for it. 

It is not, indeed, to be wondered at; for the danger 
of immediate death to ourselves took awaj all bowels 
of love, all concern for one another. I speak in 
general, for there were many instances of immoveable 
affection, pity, and duty, in many ; and some that 
came to my knowledge ; that is to say, by hear-say: 
for I shall not take upon me to vouch the truth of 
the particulars. 

To introduce one, let me first mention, that one 
of the most deplorable cases in all the present cala- 
mity, was that of Women with Child, who, when 
they came to the hour of their sorrows, and their 
pains came upon them, could neither have help of one 
kind nor another; neither midwife or neighbouring 
women to come near them. Most of the midwives 
were dead; especially of such as served the poor: 
and many, if not all the midwives of note, were fled 
into the country : so that is was next to impossible 
for a poor woman that could not pay an immoderate 
price, to get any midwife to come to her; and if they 
did, those they could get were generally unskilful and 
ignorant creatures ; and the consequence of this was, 
that a most unusual and incredible number of women 
were reduced to the utmost distress. Some were 
delivered and spoiled by the rashness and ignorance 
of those who pretended to lay them. Children 
without number were, I might say, murdered by the 
same, but a more justifiable ignorance, pretending 
they would save the mother, whatever became of the 
child ; and many times, both mother and child were 
lost in the same manner ; and especially where the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



159 



mother had the Distemper, there nobody would come 
near them, and both sometimes perished. Sometimes 
the mother has died of the Plague, and the infant, it 
may be, half-born, or born, but not parted from the 
mother. Some died in the very pains of their tra- 
vail, and not delivered at all ; and so many were the 
cases of this kind, that it is hard to judge of them. 

Something of it will appear in the unusual Num- 
bers which are put into the Weekly Bills (though I 
am far from allowing them to be able to give any- 
thing of a full account) under the Articles of 

Child-Bed, 

Abortive and Still- Bom. 
Chrisoms and Infants. 
Take the weeks in which the Plague was most 
violent, and compare them with the weeks before the 
Distemper began, even in the same year : for example : 

Child-bed. Abort. Still-bom. 

7 1 13 

8 6 11 

9 5 15 
3 2 9 
3 3 8 
6 2 11 
5 2 13 
2 2 10 
5 1 10 



48 24 100 

25 5 11 

23 6 8 

28 4 4 

40 6 10 

38 2 11 

39 23 
42 5 17 
42 6 10 
14 4 9 



291 61 80 



"Jan. 3 to Jan. 10 
to 17 
to 24 
to 31 

From \ Jan. 31 to Feb. 7 

to 14 
to 21 
to 28 

LFeb. 28 to Mar. 7 



f Aug. 1 to Aug. 8 
to 15 
to 22 
to 29 

From ■{ Aug. 29 to Sept. 5 
to 12 
to 19 

to 26 

I Sept. 26 to Oct. 3 



160 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



To the disparity of these numbers, it is to be con- 
sidered and allowed for, that according to our usual 
opinion, who were then upon the spot, there were 
not one- third of the people in the town during the 
months of August and September, as w^ere in the 
months of January and February. In a word, the 
usual number that used to die of these three Arti- 
cles ; and, as I hear, did die of them the year before, 
was thus : — 

3/ Child-bed 189 I g /Child-bed 625 

^ \ Abort, and Stm-born458 j S t -^^ort-andStiU-born 617* 

647 1242 

This inequality, I say, is exceedingly augmented, 
w^hen the numbers of people are considered. I pre- 
tend not to make any exact calculation of the num- 
bers of people which were at this time in the city ; 
but I shall make a probable conjecture at that part 
by-and-by. What I have said now, is to explain 
the misery of those poor Creatures above ; so that it 
might well be said, as in the Scripture — Woe he 

* The Increase of Mortality under the head Abortive and Still- 
born" in the year of the Plague, was by no means so great, compa- 
ratively, as in that of the deaths in Child-Bed," as will be seen 
by the following extracts from the Bills of Mortality, which include 
the returns for ten years, viz., from 1661 to 1670. — The numbers 
given by De Foe, under the year 1664, are not correct. The 
actual amount exceeded the total which he has given by 106. 
Abortive and Still-Born. Child-Bed. 



1661 


511 


224 


1662 


523 


175 


1663 


550 


206 


1664 


503 


250 


a.66S 


617 




1666 


477 


253 


1667 


488 


262 


]668 


751 


271 


1669 


517 


277 


1670 


632 


288 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



161 



to those who are with Child , and to those which give 
suck in that Bay^ For indeed, it was a woe to 
them in particular. 

I was not conversant in many particular families 
where these things happened; but the outcries of 
the miserable were heard afar off. As to those who 
were with child, we have seen some calculation made ; 
two hundred and ninety-one women dead in child-bed 
in nine weeks, out of one-third part of the number, 
of whom there usually died in that time but forty- 
eight of the same disaster. Let the reader calculate 
the proportion. 

There is no room to doubt, but the misery of those 
that gave suck was in proportion as great. Our 
Bills of Mortality could give but httle light in this ; 
yet some it did. There were several more than usual 
starved at nurse; but this was nothing. The misery 
was, where they were, 1st, starved for want of a 
nurse, the mothers dying and all the family, and the 
infants found dead by them, merely for want ; and, 
if I may speak my opinion, I do believe, that many 
hundreds of poor helpless infants perished in this 
manner; 2ndly, not starved, but poisoned by the 
nurse. Nay, even where the mother has been nurse, 
and having received the Infection, has poisoned, that 
is, infected the infant with her milk, even before she 
knew she was infected herself; nay, and the infant 
has died in such a case before the mother. I cannot 
i but remember to leave this admonition upon record, 
I if ever such another dreadful Visitation should hap- 
pen in this city; that all women that are mth 
child, or that give suck, should be gone, if they 
I have any possible m^eans, out of the place; because 
1 their misery, if infected, will so much exceed all 
1 other people's."^ 

* Notwithstanding the great mortality alleged to have taken place 
M 



162 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I. could tell here dismal stories of liviug Infants 
being found sucking the Breasts of their mothers, or 
nurses, after thev had been dead of the Plague. Of 
a Mother, in the parish where I lived, who having a 
Child that was not well, sent for an Apothecary to 
view the child ; and when he came, as the relation 
goes, was giving the child suck at her Breast, and to 
all appearance, was herself very well : but when the 
xlpothecary came close to her, he saw the tokens upon 
that breast with which she was suckling the child. 
He was surprised enough to be sure; but not vdrhng 
to fright the poor T^^'oman too much, he deshed she 
would give the child into his hand ; so he takes the 
child, and going to a cradle in the room, lays it in, 
and opening its clothes, found the tokens upon the 
child too, and both died before he could get home to 
send a Preventive medicine to the father of the child, 
to whom he told their condition ; whether the child 
infected the nurse-mother, or the mother the child, 
was not certain, but the last most likely. 

Likewise of a child brought home to the parents 
from a nurse that had died of the Plague ; yet the 
tender mother would not refuse to take in her child, 
and laid it in her bosom, by which she as infected, 
and died, vrith the child in her arms dead also. 

It would make the hardest heart move at the in- 
stances that were frequently found of tender mothers, 
tending and watching vrith their dear children, and 
even dying before them, and sometimes taking the 
Distemper from them, and dying, when the child, for 
whom the affectionate heart had been sacrificed, has 
got ovei^it and escaped. 

among females, it appears from the Bills of Mortality, that the 
difference between the male and female deaths during the year, was 
only 168, namely : — 




MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



163 



The like of a Tradesman in East Smithfield, Tvliose 
Wife was big with, child of her first child, and fell 
in labour having the Plague upon her. He could 
neither get midwife to assist her, nor nurse to tend 
her; and two servants which he kept fled both from 
her. He ran from house to house like one distracted, 
but could get no help ; the utmost he could get was, 
that a watchman, who attended at an infected house 
shut up, promised to send a nurse in the morning. 
The poor man, with his heart broken, went back; 
assisted liis wife what he could, acted the part of 
the midwife, and brought the child dead into the 
world: his wife, in about an hour, died in his arms, 
v>-here he held her dead body fast till the morning, 
when the watchman came, and brought the nurse, 
as he had promised; and coming up the stairs, for 
he had left the door open, or only latched, they 
' found the man sitting vrith his dead wife in his 
arms, and so overwhelmed with grief, that he died 
in a few hours after, T^ithout any sign of the Infection 
upon him, but merely sunk under the weight of liis 
G-rief. 

I have heard also of some who, on the death of 
their relations, have grown stupid with the insup- 
portable sorrow; and of one in particular, who was 
!so absolutely overceme with the pressure upon his 
spirits, that by degrees, his head sunk into his body, 
so between his shoulders, that the crown of his head 
was very little seen above the bones of his shoulders; 
and by degrees, losing both voice and sense, his face 
looking forward, lay against his collar-bone, and 
could not be kept up any otherwise, unless held up 
|by the hands of other people ; and the poor man 
jnever came to himself again, but languished near a 
lyear in that condition, and died. Nor was he ever 
f :>i 2 



164 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



once seen to lift up his eyes, or to look upon any 
particular object."^ 

I cannot undertake to give any other than a sum- 
mary of such passages as these, because it was not 
possible to come at the particulars, where sometimes 
the whole families where such things happened, were 
carried oiF by the Distemper : but there were innu- 
merable cases of this kind, presented to the eye, and 
the ear, even in passing along the streets, as I have 
hinted above : — nor is it easy to give any story of 
this or that family, to which there were not divers 
parallel stories to be met v»ith of the same kind. 

But as I am now talking of the time when the 
Plague raged at the easternmost part of the town ; 
how for a long time the people of those parts had 
flattered themselves that they should escape ; and 
how they were surprised when it came upon them as 
it did ; for indeed, it came upon them like an armed 
man, when it did come : I say, this brings me back 
to the three poor Men, who wandered from "Wapping, 
not knoTsing whither to go, or what to do, and whom 
I mentioned before ; one a Biscuit-baker, one a Sail- 
maker, and the other a J oiner ; all of Wapping, or 
thereabouts. 

The sleepiness and security of that part, as I have 
observed, was such, that they not only did not shift 
for themselves, as others did, but they boasted of 
being safe, and of safety being with them; and many 
people fled out of the city, and out of the infected 
suburbs, to Wapping, RatclifF, Limehouse, Poplar, 
and such places, as to places of security; and it is 
not at all unlikely, that their doing this, helped to 

* It is hardly necessary to observe that this story of the man 
Tvliose head sunk between his shoulders, is utterly incredible ; and 
if it be not a fabrication of the author, the circumstances must be 
strangely and ridiculously exaggerated. 



. MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 165 

r bring the Plague that way faster, than it might other- 
ii wise have come. For, though I am much for people's 
' fleeing away, and emptying such a town as this, upon. 
, the first appearance of a hke Visitation, and that all 
people, who have any possible retreat, should make 
j use of it. in time, and begone; yet I must say, when 
I all that will flee are gone, those that are left and 
must stand it, should stand stock still where they 
are, and not shift from one end of the town, or one 
part of the town, to the other; for that is the bane 
and mischief of the whole, and they carry the Plague 
from house to house in their very clothes. 

^Mierefore were we ordered to kill all the Dogs and 
Cats ? but because, as they were domestic animals, 
and are apt to run from house to house, and from 
street to street, so they are capable of carrying the 
effluvia, or infectious steams, of bodies infected, even 
in their furs and hair ; and therefore it was, that in 
the beginning of the Infection, an Order was pubhshed 
by the Lord Mayor, and by the Magistrates, accord- 
ing to the advice of the physicians, that all the Dogs 
and Cats should be immediately killed, and an oflicer 
was appointed for the execution. 

It is incredible, if their account is to be depended 
upon, what a prodigious number of those creatures 
were destroyed : I think they talked of forty thou- 
sand Dogs, and five times as many Cats ; few houses 
being without a Cat, some having several, sometimes 
five or six in a house. All possible endeavours were 
used also to destroy the mice and rats, especially the 
latter, by lapng rats-bane, and other poisons for 
them, and a prodigious multitude of them was also 
destroyed. 

I often reflected upon the unprovided condition 
that the whole body of the people were in, at the first 
coming of this calamity upon them, and how it was for 



166 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 



want of timely entering into measures and manage- 
ments, as TTcli public as private, that all tlie confu- 
sions tliat followed were brought upon us, and that 
such a prodigious number of people sunk in that 
disaster, which, if proper steps had been taken^ 
might. Providence concurring, have been avoided : 
and which, if posterity think fit, they may take a 
caution and warning from : — but I shall come to this 
part again. 

I come back again to my three Men. Their story 
has a Moral in every part of it, and their whole con- 
duct, and that of some whom they joined T^ith, is a 
pattern for all poor men to follow, or women either^ 
if ever such a time comes again ; and if there was no 
other end in recording it, I think this a very just 
one, whether mr accomit be exactly accordino; to 
fact or no. 

Two of them are said to be Brothers, the one an 
old soldier, but now a Biscuit-baker ; the other a 
lame sailor, but now a Sail-maker ; the third, a 
Joiner. Says /o/m, the biscuit-baker, one day, to 
Thomas, his brother, the sail-maker, — Brother 
Tora, what mil become of us ? The Plague grows 
hot in the City, and increases this way : what shall 
we do ? " * 

''Truly," says Thomas, ''I am at a great loss 
what to do ; for I find, if it comes down into tap- 
ping, I shall be turned out of my lodging." — And 
thus they began to talk of it before-hand : — 

John. — ''Turned out of your lodging, Tom ! if 
you are, I don't know who will take you in; for 
people are so afraid of one another now, there's no 
getting a lodging anywhere." 

Thomas. — " AYhy, the people where I lodge are 
good civil people, and have kindness enough for me 
too; but they say I go abroad every day to my 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



167 



work, and it will be dangerous ; and tliey talk of 
locking themselves up, and letting nobody come 
near them." 

John. — Why, they are in the right, to be sure, 
if they resolve to venture staying in town." 

Thomas.— " Nay, I might e'en resolve to stay 
within doors too ; for except a suit of sails that my 
master has in hand, and which I am just finishing, I 
am like to get no more w^ork a great while ; there's 
no trade stirs now : workmen and servants are 
turned off everywhere, so that I might be glad to 
be locked up too; but I do not see they will be 
willing to consent to that, any more than to the 
other." 

John. — ^'Why, what will you do, then, brother? 
and what shall I do ? for I am almost as bad as 
you. The people where I lodge are all gone into 
the country, but a maid, and she is to go next 
week, and to shut the house quite up ; so that I 
shall be turned adrift to the wide world before you 
are, and I am resolved to go away too, if I knew 
but where to go." 

Thomas. — We were both distracted we did not 
go away at first, then we might have travelled any- 
where : there's no stirring now ; we shall be starved 
if we pretend to go out of town : they won't let us 
have victuals, no, not for our money, nor let us come 
into the towns, much less into their houses." 

John. — And that which is almost as bad, I have 
but little money to help myself with neither." 

Thomas. — ^'As to that, we might make shift. 
I have a little, though not much; but I tell you 
there's no stirring on the road. I know a couple 
of poor honest men in our street have attempted to 
travel ; and at Barnet, or Whetstone, or thereabout, 
the people offered to fire at them, if they pretended 



168 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 



to go forward ; so they are come back again quite 
discouraged." 

John. — I would have ventured their fire, if I 
had been there : if I had been denied food for my 
money^ they should have seen me take it before their 
faces ; and if I had tendered money for it, they could 
not have taken any course with me by law," 

Thomas.- — You talk your old Soldier's language^, 
as if you were in the Low Countries now, but this 
is a serious thing. The people have good reason to 
keep anybody off, that they are not satisfied are 
sound, at such a time as this, and we must not 
plunder them." 

John. — No, brother, you mistake the case, and 
mistake me too ; I would plunder nobody : but, for 
any town upon the road to deny me leave to pass 
through the town in the open highway, and deny me 
provisions for my money, is to say the town has a 
right to starve me to death, which cannot be true,^' 

Thomas.— But they do not deny you liberty to 
go back again from whence you came, and therefore 
they do not starve you." 

John. — "But the next town behind me will, by 
the same rule, deny me leave to go back, and so they 
do starve me between them: besides, there is no 
law to prohibit my travelling wherever I will on 
the road." 

Thomas. — "But there will be so much difficulty 
in disputing with them at every town on the road, 
that it is not for poor men to do it, or to undertake 
it, at such a time as this is especially."' 

John. — "Why, brother, our condition, at this 
rate, is worse than anybody's else ; for we can nei- 
ther go away nor stay here. I am of the same mind 
with the lepers of Samaria: — ' If we stay here we 
are sure to die.' I mean especially, as you and I 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



169 



P are situated, witliout a dwelling-house of our own, 
j and without lodging in anybody's else: there is 
! no lying in the street at such a time as this ; we 
; had as good go into the Dead-cart at once. There- 
j fore, I say, if we stay here we are sure to die, and 
1 if we go away we can but die ; — I am resolved to 
be gone/' 

Thomas.— "You ivill go away. Whither will 
you go ? and what can you do ? I would as willingly 
go away as you, if I knew whither : but we have no 
acquaintance, no friends. Here we were born, and 
here we must die." 

John. — "Look you, Tom, the whole kingdom is 
my native country as well as this tovm. You may 
as well say, I must not go out of my house if it be 
on fire, as that I must not go out of the town I was 
born in, when it is infected with the Plague. I 
was born in England, and have a right to live in it 
if I can/' 

Thomas. — " But you know every vagrant person 
may, by the laws of England, be taken up, and passed 
back to their last legal settlement." 

John. — "But how shall they make me vagrant ? 
I desire only to travel on, upon my lawful occasions." 

Thomas. — ^" What lawful occasions can we pre- 
tend to travel, or rather wander upon ? They will 
not be put off with words." 

John. — "Is not flying to save our lives a lawful 
occasion ? and do they not all know that the fact is 
true ? We cannot be said to dissemble." 

Thomas. — " But suppose they let us pass, whither 
shall we go ? " 

John. — "Anywhere to save our lives ; it is time 
enough to consider that, when we are got out of this 
town. If I am once out of this dreadful place, I 
care not where I go." 



170 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. || 

Thomas. — We shall be driven to great extremi- 
ties. I know not what to think of it." 

John. — Well, Tom, consider of it a little." 

This was about the beginning of July ; and 
though the Plague was come forward in the w^est 
and north parts of the town, yet all Wapping, as I 
have observed before, and Eedriif, and RatclifF, and 
Limehouse, and Poplar — in short, Deptford and 
Greenwich, all both sides of the river from the 
Hermitage, and from over against it, quite down to 
Blackwall, was entirely free, there had not one per- 
son died of the Plague in all Stepney parish, and not 
one on the south side of Whit echap el-road, no, not 
in any parish ; and yet the weekly Bill was that very 
week risen up to 1006.^ 

It was a fortnight after this, before the two Bro- 
thers met again, and then the case was a little altered, 
and the Plague was exceedingly advanced, and the 
number greatly increased ; the Bill was up at 2785, 
and prodigiously increasing, though still both sides 
of the river, as before, kept pretty well. But some 
began to die in Bedriff, and about five or six in Bat- 
cliff-highway, when the Sail-maker came to his bro- 
ther John express, and in some fright ; for he was 
absolutely warned out of his lodging, and had only a 
week to provide himself. His brother John was in 
as bad a case ; for he was quite out, and had only 
begged leave of his master, the biscuit-baker, to lodge 
in an out-house belonging to his work-house, where 
he lay upon straw only, with some biscuit sacks, or 
bread sacks, as they called them, laid upon it, and 
some of the same sacks to cover him. 

* The weekly Bill of the 4th of July, which records the above 
number of deaths, states also that two persons had died of the 
Plague in Stepney Parish ; and six others in St. Mary's, White- 
chapel. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



in 



Here they resolved^ seeing all employment was at 
an end, and no work or wages to be had, they would 
make the best of their way to get out of the reach of 
the dreadful Infection ; and being as good husbands 
as they could, would endeavour to live upon what 
they had as long as it would last, and then work for 
more, if they could get work anywhere, of any kind, 
let it be what it would. 

While they were considering to put this resolution 
in practice, in the best manner they could, the third 
Man, who was acquainted very well with the Sail- 
maker, came to know of the design, and got leave to 
be one of the number ; and thus they prepared to 
set out. 

It happened that they had not an equal share of 
money ; but as the Sail-maker, who had the best 
stock, was, besides his being lame, the most unfit to 
expect to get anything by working in the country, 
so he was content that what money they had should 
all go into one public Stock, on condition, that what- 
ever any one of them could gain more than another, 
it should, without any grudging, be all added to the 
same public Stock. 

They resolved to load themselves with as little 
baggage as possible, because they resolved at first to 
travel on foot, and' to go a great way, that they 
might, if possible, be effectually safe ; and a great 
many consultations they had with themselves, before 
they could agree about what way they should travel, 
which they were so far from adjusting, that, even 
to the morning they set out, they were not resolved 
on it. 

At last, the Seaman put in a hint that determined 
it. — First," says he, the weather is very hot, and 
therefore I am for travelling north, that we may not 
have the sun upon our faces and beating on our 



1/2 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



breasts^ wliicli will heat and suffocate us ; and I have 
been told/' says he, '^that it is not good to over- 
heat our blood at a time when, for aught we know, 
the Infection may be in the very air. In the next 
place/' says he, ^' I am for going the way that may 
be contrary to the wind as it may blow when we set 
out, that we may not haye the wind blow the air 
of the City on our backs as we go." These two 
cautions were approved of ; if it could be brought so 
to hit, that the wind might not be in the south when 
they set out to go north. 

John the baker, who had been a soldier, then put 
in his opinion — First," says he, we none of us 
expect to get any lodging on the road, and it will be 
a little too hard to lie just in the open air : though it 
be warm weather, yet it may be wet and damp, and 
we have a double reason to take care of our healths 
at such a time as this ; and therefore," says he, 
^^you, brother Tom, that are a Sail-maker, might 
easily make us a little tent, and I will undertake to 
set it up every night, and take it down, and a fig for 
all the Inns in England : if we have a good tent over 
our heads, we shall do well enough." 

The Joiner opposed this, and told them, let them 
leave that to him, he would undertake to build them 
a house every night mth his hatchet and mallet, 
though he had no other tools, which should be fully 
to their satisfaction, and as good as a tent. 

The Soldier and the Joiner disputed that point 
some time, but at last the Soldier carried it for a 
tent ; the only objection against it was, that it must 
. be carried T\ith them, and that would increase their 
baggage too much, the weather being hot ; but the 
Sail-maker had a piece of good hap fell in, which 
made that easy, for his master whom he worked for 
ha\ing a rope-walk, as well as his sail-making trade, 



4 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 1/3 

I had a little poor horse that he made no use of then, 
j 'and being willing to assist the three honest men, he 
|| gave them the horse for the carrying their baggage ; 
I also, for a small matter of three days' work that his 
!| man did for him before he went, he let him hare an 
jj old top-gallant sail that was worn out, but was suffi- 
I cient and more than enough to make a very good 
' tent : the Soldier showed how to shape it, and 
they soon, by his direction, made their tent, and fitted 
it with poles or staves for the purpose, and thus they 
were furnished for their journey ; viz. three men, one 
tent, one horse, one gun, for the Soldier would not 
go without arms, for now he said he was no more a 
Biscuit-baker, but a Trooper. 

The Joiner had a small bag of tools, such as might 
be useful if he should get any work abroad, as well 
for their subsistence as his otmi. What money they 
had, they brought all into one public Stock, and thus 
they began their journey. It seems, that in the 
morning when they set out, the wind blew, as the 
Sailor said, by his pocket-compass, at N.W. by W. ; 
so they directed, or rather resolved to direct, their 
course N.W. 

But then a difficulty came in their way, that as 
they set out from the hither end of Wapping, near 
the Hermitage, and that the Plague was now very 
violent, especially on the north side of the City, as 
in Shoreditch and Cripplegate parish, they did not 
think it safe for them to go near those parts ; so they 
went away east, through Radcliff-highway, as far as 
Iladcliff-cross, and leaving Stepney church still on 
their left hand, being afraid to come up from Bad- 
cliff- cross to Mile-end, because they must come just 
by the church-yard, and because the wind, that 
seemed to blow more from the west, blowed directly 
from the side of the City where the Plague was 



t 



174 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



hottest. So I say, leaying Stepney, they fetched a 
loPxg compass, and gomg to Poplar and Bromley, 
came into the great road just at Bow. 

Here the watch placed upon Bow-bridge would 
have questioned them ; but they, crossing the road 
into a narrow way that turns out of the higher end 
of the to^^Ti of Bow to Old-Ford, avoided any inquiry 
there, and travelled to Old-Ford. The Constables 
everywhere were upon their guard, not so much, it 
seems, to stop people passing by, as to stop them 
from taking up their abode in their towns, but mthal, 
because of a report that was newly raised at that 
time, and that indeed w^as not very improbable, viz., 
" that the poor people in London being distressed 
and starved for want of work, and by that means 
for want of bread, were up in arms, and had raised 
a tumidt, and that they would come out to all the 
towns round to plunder for bread." This, I say, was 
only a rumour, and it v/as very well it was no more; 
but it was not so far oii from being a reality as it 
has been thought, for in a few weeks more the poor 
people became so desperate by the calamity they 
suffered, that they were with great difficulty kept 
from running out into the fields and towns, and 
tearing all in pieces wherever they came ; and, as I 
have observed before, nothing hindered them but 
that the Plague raged so violently, and fell in upon 
them so furiously, that they rather went to the 
Grave by thousands, than into the Fields in mobs by 
thousands. For in the parts about the parishes of 
St. Sepulchre, Clerkenwell, Cripplegate, Bishop sgate, 
and Shoreditch, which were the places where the 
mob began to threaten, the Distem.per came on so 
furiously, that there died in those few parishes, even 
then, before the Plague was come to its height, no 
less than 5361 people in the first three weeks in 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



175 



! August^ wlien^ at the same time, the parts about 
Wapping, RadchiF, and Eotherhithe, were, as before 
li described, hardly touched, or but very lightly; so 
I that, in a word, though, as I said before, the good 
^ management of the Lord Mayor and Justices did much 
to prevent the rage and desperation of the people 
I from breaking out in rabbles and tumults, and, 
' in short, the poor from plundering the rich ; I 
say, though they did much, the Dead-cart did more: 
for, as I have said, that in five parishes only, there 
died above oOOO in twenty days, so there might be 
probably three times that number sick all that time; 
for some recovered, and great numbers fell sick every 
day, and died afterwards. Besides, I must still be 
allowed to say, that if the Bills of Mortality said five 
thousand, I always beheved it was near twice as many 
in reality ; there being no room to believe that the 
account they gave was right, or that, indeed, they 
were, among such confusions as I saw them in, in any 
condition to keep an exact account. 

But to return to my Travellers : — Here they were 
only examined ; and as they seemed rather coming 
from the country than from the city, they found the 
people the easier with them ; that they talked to 
them, let them come into a public-house where the 
constable and his vrarders were, and gave them drink 
and some victuals, which greatly refreshed and 
encouraged them ; and here it came into their heads 
to say, when they should be inquired of afterwards, 
not that they came from London, but that they camxe 
out of Essex. 

! To forward this little fraud, they obtained so much 
favour of the constable at Old-Ford, as to give them 
I a certificate of their passing from Essex through that 
I village, and that they had not been at London, 
which, though false in the common acceptation of 



176 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



London in tliat county, yet was literally true; Wap- 
ping or RadcliiF being no part either of the City or 
liberties. 

This certificate, directed to the next constable, 
that was at Hummerton, [Homerton,] one of the ham- 
lets of the parish of Hackney, was so serviceable to 
them, that it procured them not a free passage there 
only, but a full certificate of Health from, a Justice of 
the peace; who, upon the constable's application, 
granted it without much difiiculty ; and thus they 
passed through the long divided town of Hackney, 
(for it lay then in several separated hamlets,) and 
travelled on till they came into the great north road 
on the top of Stamford-hill. 

By this time they began to be weary, and so in 
the back road from Hackney, a httle before it opened 
into the said great road, they resolved to set up their 
tent, and encamp for the first night; which they did 
accordingly, with the addition, that, finding a barn, 
or a building hke a barn, and first searching as well 
as they could, to be sure there was nobody in it, 
they set up their tent, with the head of it against 
the barn. This they did also because the wind blew 
that night very high, and they were but young at 
such a way of lodging, as well as at the managing 
their tent. 

Here they went to sleep, but the Joiner, a grave 
and sober man, and not pleased with their lying at 
this loose rate, the first night could not sleep, and 
resolved, after trying to sleep to no purpose, that he 
would get out, and taking the gun in his hand, stand 
sentinel, and guard his companions : so, with the 
gun in his hand, he walked to and again before the 
barn, for that stood in the field near the road, but 
within the hedge. He had not been long upon the 
scout, but he heard a noise of people coming on as if 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



177 



it had been a great number, and they came on, as he 
thought, directly towards the barn. He did not pre- 
sently awake his companions, but in a few minutes 
more their noise growing louder and louder, the 
Biscuit-baker called to him and asked him what was 
the matter, and quickly started but too : the other 
being the lame Sail-maker, and most weary, lay still 
in the tent. 

As they expected, so the people whom they had 
heard came on directly to the barn, when one of our 
Travellers challenged, like soldiers upon the guard, 
with — Who comes there ?" The people did not 
answer immediately, but one of them speaking to 
another that was behind him, — ^^Alas ! alas I we 
are all disappointed," says he, here are some people 
before us, the barn is taken up.'^ 

They all stopped upon that, as under some sur- 
prise, and it seems there were about thirteen of them 
in all, and some women among them. They con- 
sulted together what they should do, and by their 
discourse, our Trarellers soon found they were poor 
distressed people too, like themselves, seeking shelter 
and safety ; and besides, our Travellers had no need 
to be afraid of their coming up to disturb them ; for 
as soon as they heard the words, — Who comes 
there ?" these could hear the women say, as if 
frighted, — Do not go near them: how do you know 
but they may have the Plague ?" And when one of 
the men said, — Let us but speak to them the 
woman said, — " No, don't, by any means, we have 
escaped thus far by the goodness of God, do not let 
us run into danger now, we beseech you." 

Our Travellers found by this that they were a 
good sober sort of people, and fleeing for their lives, 
as they w^ere ; and as they were encouraged by it, so 
John said to the Joiner, his comrade, Let us en- 

N 



178 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



courage them, too, as mucli as we can:^' so he called J 
to them: Hark ye, good people/' says the Joiner, - 
" we find by our talk^ that you are fleeing from the 
same dreadful enemy as we are ; do not be afraid of 
us^ we are only three poor men of us; if you are free 
from the Distemper, you shall not be hurt by us : we 
are not in the barn, but in a little tent here on the 
outside, and we will remove for you, we can set up our 
tent again immediately any where else and upon 
this a parley began between the Joiner, whose name 
was Richard, and one of their men, who said his 
name was Ford. 

Ford. — And do you assure us that you are all 
sound men V 

Richard. — Nay, we are all concerned to tell 
you of it, that you may not be uneasy, or think your- 
selves in danger ; but you see we do not desire you 
should put yourselves into any danger ; and there- 
fore, I tell you, that we have not made use of the 
barn, so we mil remove from it, that you may be 
safe, and we also." 

Ford. — ''That is very kind and charitable; but, if 
we have reason to be satisfied that you are sound and 
free from the Visitation, why should we make you 
remove now you are settled in your lodging, and it 
may be, are laid down to rest ? We will go into the 
barn, if you please, to rest ourselves a while, and we 
need not disturb you." 

Richard. — '' Well, but you are more than vre 
are : I hope you will assure us that you are all of 
you sound too, for the danger is as great from you to 
us, as from us to you." 

Ford. — " Blessed be God that some do escape, 
though it is but few ; what may be our portion still 
we know not, but hitherto we are preserved." 

Richard. — '' What part of the town do you come 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



179 



I from ? Was the Plague come to the places where you 
Kved?" 

|| Ford. — " Ay, ay^ in a most frightful and terrible 
jl manner, or else we had not fled away as we do ; but 
' we beUeve there will be very few left alive behind 
^ us." 

Richard. — " What part do you come from 
Ford. — We are most of us of Cripplegate parish, 
. only two or three of Clerkenwell parish, but on the 
hither side.'' 

Richard. — How then was it that you came 
away no sooner i 

Ford. — " We have been away some time, and 
kept together as well as we could at the hither end 
of Ishngton, where we got leave to lie in an old un- 
inhabited house, and had some bedding and conve- 
niences of our own that we brought with us, but the 
Plague is come up into Islington too, and a house 
next door to our poor dw elling w^as infected and shut 
, up, and w^e are come away in a fright.'"^ 
J Richard. — " And what w^ay are you going ?" 

Ford. — As our lot shall cast us. — We know not 
whither, — -but God will guide those that look up 
I to him." 

1 They parleyed no farther at that time, but came 
all up to the barn, and with some difficulty got into 

I it : there was nothing but hay in the barn, but it 
was almost full of that, and they accommodated them- 

' selves as well as they could, and w^ent to rest ; but 

' our Travellers observed, that before they went to 
sleep, an ancient man, who it seems was father of 
one of the women, went to Prayer with all the com- 

I * In Islington, according to the Bills, about 700 persons died of 
the Plague in the course of the year. The first death occurred in 
the Weekly Bill from the 13th to the 20th of June, from which 
time the Infection gradually increased until September, -when it was 

I at its height in every part of the Metropolis. 

. N 2 



180 



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pany, recommending themselves to the blessing 
and direction of Providence, before they went to J 
sleep. 

It v^as soon day at that time of the year ; and as ^ 
Eichard the Joiner had kept guard the first part of j 
the night, so John the Soldier relieved him, and he ' 
had the post in the morning, and they began to be 
acquainted with one another. It seems when they 
left Islington, they intended to have gone north, 
away to Highgate, but were stopped at Hollo way, 
and there they would not let them pass ; so they 
crossed over the fields and hills to the eastward, and 
came out at the Boarded-rwer ;^ and so, avoiding 
the town, they left Hornsey on the left-hand, and 
Newington on the right-hand, and came into the 
great road about Stamford-hill on that side, as the 
three Travellers had done on the other side : and 
\iow they had thoughts of going over the river 
[the Lea] in the marshes, and make forwards to 
Epping forest, where they hoped they should get 
leave to rest. It seems they were not poor, at least, 
not so poor as to be in want; they had enough to 
subsist them moderately for two or three months, 
when, as they said, they were in hopes the cold 
weather would check the Infection, or at least the 
violence of it would have spent itself ; and would 
abate, if it were only for want of people left alive to 
be infected. 

This was much the fate of our three Travellers ; 
only that they seemed to be the better furnished for 
travelling, and had it in their view to go farther oif ; 
for, as to the first, they did not propose to go far- 
ther than one day's journey, so that they might have 

* The Boarded-river was a part of the New River so called, near 
Hornsey-wood House : — where, formerly, the water was conveyed 
over a low valley, in a sort of trough. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



181 



' intelligence every two or three days how things were 
at London. 

But here our Travellers found themselves under 
an unexpected inconvenience, namely, that of their 
horse, for by means of the horse to carry their hag- 

I gage, they were obliged to keep in the road; whereas, ^ 
the people of this other band went over the fields or 
roads, path or no path, way or no way, as they 
pleased ; neither had they any occasion to pass 
through any town, or come near any town, other 
than to buy such things as they wanted for their 
necessary subsistence, and in that, indeed, they were 
put to much difficulty; — of which in its place. 

But our three Travellers were obliged to keep the 
road, or else they must commit spoil, and do the 
country a great deal of damage in breaking down 
fences and gates, to go over enclosed fields, which 
they were loath to do if they could help it. 

Our three Travellers, however, had a great mind 
to join themselves to this company, and take their 
lot vdth them ; and after some discourse, they laid 
aside their first design which looked northward, and 

j resolved to follow the other into Essex; so in the 

1 morning, they took up their tent, and loaded their 
horse, and away they travelled altogether. 

They had some difficulty in passing the Ferry at 
the river side, the ferry-man being afraid of them ; 
but after some parley at a distance, the ferry-man 
was content to bring his boat to a place distant from 
the usual ferry, and leave it there for them to take 
it ; so putting themselves over, he directed them to 
leave the boat, and he having another boat, said he 

; would fetch it again, which it seems, however, he did 

I not do for above eight days. 

Here, giving the ferry-man money before-hand, 
they had a supply of victuals and drink, which he 



182 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



brought and left in the boat for them^ but not with- 
out, as I said, having received the money before-hand. 
But now our Travellers were at a great loss and dif- 
ficulty how to get the horse over, the boat being 
small, and not fit for it; and at last could not do it 
without unloading the baggage, and making him 
swim over. 

From the river they travelled towards the forest, 
but when they came to Walthamstow, the people of 
that town denied to admit them, as was the case 
everywhere. The constables and their watchmen 
kept them off at a distance, and parleyed with them ; 
they gave the same account of themselves as before, 
but these gave no credit to what they said, giving it 
for a reason that two or three companies had already 
come that way, and made the like pretences, but that 
they had given several people the Distemper in the 
towns where they had passed, and had been after- 
wards so hardly used by the country, (though with 
justice too, as they had deserved), that about Brent- 
wood, or that way, several of them perished in the 
fields, whether of the Plague, or of mere want and 
distress, they could not tell. 

This was a good reason indeed why the people of 
Walthamstow should be very cautious, and why they 
should resolve not to entertain anybody that they 
were not well satisfied of. But as Richard the 
Joiner, and one of the other men who parleyed with 
them, told them, it was no reason why they should 
block up the roads, and refuse to let people pass 
through the town, and who asked nothing of them, 
but to go through the street : that if their people 
were afraid of them, they might go into their houses 
and shut their doors, they would neither shew them 
civility nor incivility, but go on about their busi- 
ness. 



|| MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 183 

I The Constables and attendants, not to be persuaded 
1 by reason^ continued obstinate, and would hearken to 
jl nothing ; so the two men that talked with them went 
: back to their fellows, to consult what was to be done. 
1 It was very discouraging in the whole, and they knew 
i not what to do for a good while ; but at last John 
I the Soldier and Biscuit-baker, considering awhile, — 
Come," says he, leave the rest of the parley to 
me." He had not appeared yet, so he sets the Joiner, 
Richard, to work, to cut some poles out of the trees, 
and shape them as like guns as they could, and in a 
little time he had five or six fair muskets, which, at 
a distance, would not be known ; and about the part 
where the lock of a gun is, he caused them to wrap 
cloth and rags, such as they had, as soldiers do in 
wet weather, to preserve the locks of their pieces 
from rust, the rest was discoloured with clay or mud, 
such as they could get ; and all this while the rest 
of them sat under the trees by his direction, in two 
or three bodies, where they made fires at a good dis- 
tance from one another. 

While this was doing, he advanced himself and 
two or three with him, and set up their tent in the 
lane within sight of the barrier which the town's men 
had made, and set a sentinel just by it with the real 
gun, the only one they had, and who walked to and 
fro with the gun on his shoulder, so as that the people 
of the town might see them ; also he tied the horse 
to a gate in the hedge just by, and got some dry 
sticks together, and kindled a fire on the other side 
of the tent, so that the people of the town could see 
the fire and the smoke, but could not see what they 
were doing at it. 

After the country people had looked upon them 
very earnestly a great while, and, by all that they 
could see, could not but suppose that they were a great 



184 



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many in company, they began to be uneasy, not for 
their going away, but for staying where they were ; 
and above all, perceiving they had horses and arms, 
for they had seen one horse and one gun at the tent, 
and they had seen others of them walk about the 
field on the inside of the hedge, by the side of the 
lane with their muskets (as they took them to be), 
shouldered; — I say, upon such a sight as this, you 
may be assured they were alarmed and terribly 
frighted : and it seems they w^ent to a Justice of the 
peace to know what they should do. What the 
Justice advised them to I know not, but towards the 
evening they called from the barrier, as above, to the 
sentinel at the tent. 

What do you want ? " says John."'^ 
"Why, what do you intend to do ? ^' says the 
Constable. 

"To do ! says John, "what would you have us 
todo?^' 

Constable. — Why don't you be gone — what do 
you stay there for ? '' 

John. — "Why do you stop us on the King's 
highway, and refuse us leave to go on our way ? " 

Constable. — "We are not bound to tell you our 
reason ; though we did let you know, it was because 
of the Plague.'' 

John. — "We told you we were all sound, and 
free from the Plague, which we were not bound to 
have satisfied you of, and yet you pretend to stop us 
on the highway ! " 

Constable. — "We have aright to stop it up, and 
our own safety obliges us to it ; besides this is not 

* It seems John was in the tent, hut hearing them call he 
steps out, and taking the gun upon his shoulder, talked to 
them as if he had been the sentinel placed there upon the guard 
by some officer that was his superior. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



185 



the King's higliwaY, it is a way upon sufferance : you 
see here is a gate^ and if we do let people pass here, 
(; we make them pay toll." 

' John. — We have a right to seek our own safety 
j as well as you ; and you may see we are fleeing for 
f our Hves, and it is very imehristian and unjust to 
I stop us." 

Constable. — ^^You may go back from whence 
you came ; we do not hinder you from that." 

John. — No, it is a stronger enemy than you that 
keeps us from doing that ; or else we should not ha' 
come hither." 

Constable. — Well, you may go any other way 
then." 

John. — ^^No, no: I suppose you see we are able 
to send you going, and all the people of your parish, 
and come through your town when we will ; but 
since you hare stopped us here, we are content. You 
see, we have encamped here, and here we will lire ; 
we hope you will furnish us with victuals." 

Constable. — We furnish you ! what mean you 
by that ? " 

John. — ^'"WTiy, you would not have us starve, 
would you ? if you stop us here, you must keep us." 

Constable. — ^^You will be ill kept at our main- 
tenance." 

John. — '^If you stint us, we shall make ourselves 
the better allowance." 

Constable. — ^^Why, you will not pretend to 
quarter upon us by force, mil you ? " 

John. — We have offered no violence to you yet; 
why do you seem to obUge us to it ? I am an old 
soldier, and cannot starve; and if you think that we 
shall be obhged to go back for want of provisions, 
you are mistaken." 

Constable. — Since you threaten us, we shall 



186 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



take care to be strong enough for you : I have orders 
to raise the county upon you." 

John. — "^It is you that threaten, not we: and J 
since you are for mischief, you cannot blame us if we 1 
do not give you time for it ; we shall begin our march 
in a few minutes.'^ 

Constable. — "What is it you demand of us ? " 

John. — "ilt first we desired nothing of you, but 
leave to go through the town ; we should have offered 
no injury to any of you, neither would you have had 
any injury or loss by us. We are not thieves, but 
poor people in distress, and flying from the dreadful 
Plague in London, which devours thousands every 
week. We wonder how you could be so unmerciful !" 

Constable. — '^Self-preservation obliges us." 

John. — What ! to shut up your compassion in a 
case of such distress as this ? " 

Constable. — "Well, if you will pass over the 
fields on your left hand, and behind that part of the 
town, I will endeavour to have gates opened for 

you." 

John. — "Our horsemen f cannot pass with our 
baggage that way; it does not lead into the road that 
we want to go; and why should you force us out of 
the road? Besides you have kept us here all day 
without any provisions, but such as we brought with 
us ; I think you ought to send us some provisions for 
our relief." 

Constable* — "If you will go another way, we 
will send you some provisions'." 

John. — "That is the way to have all the towns 
in the county stop up the ways against us." 

Constable. — "If they all furnish you with food, 

This so frightened the Constable and the people that were 
with him, that they immediately changed their note, 
f They had but one horse among them. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



187 



what will yoii be the worse ; I see you have tents, 
you want no lodging." 

John. — ''Well, what quantity of provisions will 
you send us ? " 

Constable. — " How many are you?'^ 
John. — '' Nay, we do not ask enough for all our 
company, we are in three companies ; if you will send 
us bread for twenty men, and about six or seven 
women, for three days, and shew us the way over the 
field you speak of, we desire not to put your people 
into any fear for us; we will go out of our way to 
obhge you, though we are as free from Infection as 
you are.'^ 

Constable. — And will you assure us that your 
other people shall offer us no new disturbance ? " 

John. — '' No, no, you may depend on it." 

Constable. — ''You must oblige yourself too, 
that none of your people shall come a step nearer 
than where the provisions we send you shall be set 
down." 

John. — " I answer for it we will not." * 
Accordingly, they sent to the place twenty loaves 
of bread, and three or four large pieces of good beef, 
and opened some gates, through which they passed; 
but none of them had courage so much as to look out 
to see them go, and as it was evenmg, if they had 
looked they could not have seen them so as to know 
how few they were. 

This was John the Soldier's management. But 
this gave such an alarm to the county, that had they 
really been two or three hundred, the whole county 
would have been raised upon them; and they would 

* Here he called to one of his men, and bade him order Capt, 
Richard and his people to march the lower way on the side of 
the Marshes^ and meet them in the Forest ; which was all a 
sham, for they had no Capt. Richard, nor any such company. 



188 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



have been sent to prison, or perhaps knocked on the 
head. 

They were soon made sensible of this, for two 
days afterwards they found several parties of horse- 
men, and footmen also, about, in pursuit of three 
companies of men armed, as they said, with muskets, 
who were broke out from London, and had the Plague 
upon them; and that were not only spreading the 
Distemper among the people, but plundering the 
country. 

As they knew now the consequence of their case, 
they soon saw the danger they were in, so they re- 
solved, by the advice also of the old Soldier, to divide 
themselves again. John and his two comrades, with 
the horse, went away as if towards Waltham; the 
other in two companies, but all a little asunder, went 
towards Epping. 

The first night they encamped all in the Forest, 
and not far off one another, but not setting up the 
tent, lest that should discover them; on the other 
hand, Richard went to work with his axe and his 
hatchet, and cutting down branches of trees, he built 
three tents or hovels, in which they all encamped 
with as much convenience as they could expect. 

The provisions they had at Walthamstow served 
them very plentifully this night, and as for the next 
they left it to Providence; they had fared so well 
with the old Soldier's conduct, that they now will- 
ingly made him their leader; and the first of his 
conduct appeared to be very good. He told them 
that they were now at a proper distance enough from 
London: that as they need not be immediately be- 
holden to the country for relief, so they ought to be 
as careful the country did not infect them, as that 
they did not infect the country; that what little 
money they had, they must be as frugal of as they 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



189 



could ; that as lie would not have them think of offer- 
ing the country any Tiolence, so they must endeavour 
to make the sense of their condition go as far with 
the country as it could. They all referred themselres 
to his direction; so they left their three houses 
standing, and the next day went away towards 
Epping; the Captain also, for so they now called 
him, and his two fellow-travellers laid aside their 
design of going to Waltham, and all went together. 

When they came near Epping they halted, chusing 
out a proper place in the open forest, not very near 
the highway, but not far out of it on the north side, 
under a little cluster of low pollard-trees : here they 
pitched their little camp, which consisted of three 
large tents or huts made of poles, which their Car- 
penter, and such as were his assistants, cut down and 
fixed in the gromid in a circle, binding all the small 
ends together at the top, and thickening the sides 
with boughs of trees and bushes, so that they were 
completely close and warm. They had, besides this, 
a little tent where the women lay by themselves, and 
a hut to put the horse in. 
i It happened that the next day, or next but one, 
! was market-day at Epping, when Capt. John, and 
one of the other men, went to market, and bought 
some provisions, that is to say, bread, and some mut- 
ton and beef, and two of the women went separately 
as if they had not belonged to the rest, and bought 
more. John took the horse to bring it home, and the 
sack (which the Carpenter carried his tools in) to put 
it in: the Carpenter went to work and made them 
benches and stools to sit on, such as the wood he 
could get would afford, and a kind of a table to 
I dine on. 

j They were taken no notice of for two or three 
I days, but after that, abundance of people ran out of 



190 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



the town to look at tliem^ and all the country was 
alarmed about them. The people at first seemed 
afraid to come near them, and on the other hand, 
they desired the people to keep off, for there was a 
rumour that the Plague was at Waltham, and that 
it had been in Epping two or three days. So John 
called out to them not to come to them; ^'for," says 
he, ^'we are all whole and sound people here, and 
we would not have you bring the Plague among us, 
nor pretend we brought it among you."'' 

After this the Parish Officers came up to them 
and parleyed with them at a distance, and desired to { 
know who they were, and by what authority they 
pretended to fix their stand at that place ? John 
answered very frankly, they were poor distressed 
people from London, who foreseeing the misery they 
should be reduced to, if the Plague spread into the 
City, had fied out in time for their hves, and baring 
no acquaintance or relations to fiy to, had first taken 
up at Islington, but the Plague being come into that 
town, were fled further, and as they supposed that 
the people of Epping might have refused them coming 
into their town, they had pitched their tents thus in 
the open field, and in the Forest, being wilbng to 
bear all the hardships of such a disconsolate lodging, 
rather than have any one think, or be afraid, that 
they should receive injury by them. 

At first the Epping people talked roughly to them, 
and told them they must remove ; that this was 
no place for them; and that they pretended to be 
sound and well, but that they might be infected with 
the Plague, for aught they knew, and might infect 
the whole country, and they could not suffer them 
there. 

John argued very calmly with them a great while, 
and told them — ''That London was the place by 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



191 



which thejj that is, the townsmen of Eppiiig and all 
I the country round them, sold the produce of their 
lands, and out of whom they subsisted; by whom they 
. made the rent of their famis; and to be so cruel 
1 1 to the inhabitants of London, or to any of those by 
I |i whom they gained so much, was very hard, and they 
l(| would be loath to have it remembered hereafter, and 
have it told, how barbarous, how unhospitable, and 
how unkind they vrere to the people of London, when 
they fled from the face of the most terrible enemy in 
the world; that it would be enough to make the 
name of an Epping man hateful through all the City, 
and to have the rabble stone them in the very streets, 
whenever they came so much as to market ; that they 
were not yet secure from being visited themselves, and 
that as he heard, Waltham was already; that they 
, would think it very hard that when any of them fled 
' for fear before they were touched, they should be de- 
nied the liberty of lying so much as in the open fields/' 
The Epping men told them again — ^^That they, 
indeed, said they v/ere sound and free from the In- 
fection, but that they had no assurance of it; and 
that it was reported, that there had been a great 
rabble of people at Walthamstow, who made such 
pretences of being sound, as they did, but that they 
threatened to plunder the town, and force their way, 
whether the parish officers would or not; that they 
were near 200 of them, and had arms and tents hke 
Low Country Soldiers : that they extorted provisions 
from the town, by threatening them with lining upon 
them at free quarter, showing their arms, and talking 
in the language of soldiers; and that several of them 
being gone away to Rumford and Brentwood, the 
country had been infected by them, and the Plague 
spread into both those large towns, so that the people 
durst not go to market there as usual; that it vvas 



192 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



very likely they were some of that party ; and if so, 
they deserved to be sent to the county jail, and be 
secured till they had made satisfaction for the damage 
they had done, and for the terror and fright they had 
put the country into." 

John answered — That what other people had 
done was nothing to them; that they assured them 
they were all of one company; that they had never 
been more in number than they saw them at that 
time (which by the way was very true) ; that they 
came out in two separate companies, but joined by 
the way, their cases being the same; that they were 
ready to give what account of themselves anybody 
could desire of them, and to give in their names and 
places of abode, that so they might be called to an 
account for any disorder that they might be guilty 
of ; that the townsmen might see they were content 
to live hardly, and only desired a little room to 
breathe in on the Forest, where it was wholesome; 
for where it was not, they could not stay, and would 
decamp if they found it otherwise there." 

But," said the Townsmen, w^e have a great 
charge of poor upon our hands already, and we must 
take care not to increase it; we suppose you can give 
us no security against your being chargeable to our 
parish and to the inhabitants, any more than you can 
of being dangerous to us as to the Infection." 

Why, look you," says John, as to being 
chargeable to you, we hope w^e shall not; if you will 
relieve us with pro\asions for our present necessity, 
we will be very thankful : as we all lived without 
charity when we were at home, so we will oblige 
ourselves fully to repay you, if God please to bring 
us back to our own families and houses in safety, 
and to restore health to the people of London. 

As to our dying here, we assure you, if any of 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



193 



1 US die, we that survive will bury them, and put you 

i to no expense, except it should be that we should all 
die, and then, indeed, the last man, not being able to 

, bury himself, would put you to that single expense, 
which 1 am persuaded," says John, ^'he would leave 

I enough behind him to pay you for the expense of. 

I "On the other hand," says John, "if you will 
shut up all bowels of compassion, and not relieve us 
at all, we shall not extort anything by violence, or 
steal from any one; but when what little we have is 
spent, if we perish for want, God's will be done." 

John wrought so upon the Townsmen, by talking 
thus rationally and smoothly to them, that they 
went away ; and though they did not give any 
consent to their staying there, yet they did not 
molest them ; and the poor people continued there 
three or four days longer without any disturbance. 
In this time, they had got some remote acquaintance 
at a victualling-house at the outskirts of the tovm, 
to whom they called at a distance to bring some little 
things that they wanted, and which they caused to 
be set down at a distance, and always paid for very 
honestly. 

During this time, the younger people of the town 
came frequently pretty near them, and would stand 
and look at them, and sometimes talk with them at 
some space between ; and particularly after it was 
observed, that on the first Sabbath-day the poor 
people kept retired, worshipped God together, and 
were heard to sing psalms. 

These things, and a quiet inoffensive behaviour, 
began to get them the good opinion of the country, 
and people began to pity them, and speak very well 
of them; the consequence of which was, that upon the 
occasion of a very wet rainy night, a certain Gentle- 
man, who lived in the neighbourhood, sent them a 
o 



194 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



little cart witli twelve trusses or bimclles of straw, 
as well for them to lodge upon, as to cover and tliatch 
their huts, and to keep them dry. The ?Jiiiister of 
a parish too, not far off, not knowing of the other, 
sent them also about two bushels of wheat, and half 
a bushel of white peas. 

They were very thankful to be sure for this relief, 
and particularly the straw was a very great comfort 
to them ; for though the ingenious Carpenter had made 
fram_es for them to he in hke troughs, and filled them 
y>ith leaves of trees, and such things as they could 
get, and had cut all their tent-cloth out to make 
them coverlids; yet they lay damp, and hard, and 
unwholesome, till this straw came, which was to 
them hke feather-beds ; and, as John said, *^more 
welcome than feather-beds would have been at another 
time." 

This Gentleman and the Minister having thus 
begun, and given an example of charity to these 
vvanderers, others quickly followed, and they received 
every day some benevolence or other from the people, 
but chiefly from the Gentlemen who dwelt in the 
country round about ; some sent them chairs, stools, 
tables, and such household things as they gave notice 
they wanted ; some sent them blankets, rugs^ and 
coverlids ; some earthenware ; and some kitchenware 
for ordering their food. 

Encouraged by this good usage, their Carpenter, 
in a few days, built them a large shed or house, with 
rafters, and a roof in form, and an upper floor, in 
which they lodged warm, for the weather began to 
be damp and cold in the beginning of September ; 
but this house being very well thatched, and the 
sides and roof made very thick, kept out the cold 
well enough. He made also an earthen wall at one 
end with a chimney in it; and another of the company. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



195 



with a vast deal of trouble and pains^ made a funnel 
to the cliimneT to carry out the smoke. 

Here they lived comfortably, though coarsely, till 
the middle of September, when they had the bad 
news to hear, whether true or not, that the Plague 
which was very hot at Waltham Abbey on one side, 
and at Eomford and Brentwood on the other side, 
was also come to Epping, to Woodford, and to most 
of the towns upon the Forest, and which, as they 
said, was brought down among them chiefly by the 
higglers, and such people as went to and from London 
with provisions. 

If this was true, it was an evident contradiction 
to that report which was afterwards spread all over 
England, but which, as I have said, I cannot confirm, 
of my own knowledge, namely, that the market- 
people, carrying provisions to the city, never got the 
Infection, nor carried it back into the country; both 
which, I have been assured, was false. 

It might be that they were preserved even beyond 
expectation, though not to a miracle; that abmidance 
[of dealers] went and came, and were not touched ; 
and that was much for the encouragement of the poor 
people of London, who had been completely miser- 
able if the people that brought provisions to the 
markets had not been many times wonderfully pre- 
served ; or, at least more preserved than could be 
reasonably expected. 

But now these new inmates began to be disturbed 
more effectually ; for the towns about them were 
really infected, and they began to be afraid to trust 
one another so much as to go abroad for such things 
as they wanted ; and this pinched them very hard, 
for now they had little or nothing but what the 
charitable Gentlemen of the country supphed them 
with ; but, for their encouragement, it happened, 
o 2 



196 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



that other Gentlemen in the country^ who had not 
sent them anything hefore, began to hear of them 
and supply them^ and one sent them a large pig, that 
is to say, a porker; another, two sheep; and another 
sent them a calf; in short, they had meat enough, and 
sometimes had cheese and milk, and all such things. 
They were chiefly put to it for bread ; for when the 
Gentlemen sent them corn they had nowhere to bake 
it, or to grind it : this made them eat the first two 
bushels of wheat that was sent them in parched corn, 
as the Israelites of old did, without grinding or 
making bread of it. 

At last they found means to carry their corn to a 
windmill near Woodford, where they had it ground ; 
and afterwards the Biscuit-baker made a hearth so 
hollow and dry that he could make biscuit cakes 
tolerably well ; and thus they came into a condition 
to Hve without any assistance or supplies from the 
towns : and it was well they did, for the country was 
soon after fully infected, and about 120 were said to 
have died of the Distemper in the \dllages near them, 
which was a terrible thing to them. 

On this they called a new Council ; and now the 
towns had no need to b& afraid they should settle near 
them, but on the contrary several families of the poorer 
sort of the inhabitants quitted their houses and built 
huts in the forest after the same manner as they had 
done : but it was observed, that several of these 
poor people that had so removed had the sickness 
even in their huts or booths ; the reason of which 
was plain, namely, not because they removed into 
the air, but because they did not remove time enough, 
that is to say, not till, by openly conversing with 
the other people, their neighbours, they had the 
Distemper upon them, or, (as may be said) among 
them, and so carried it about them whither they 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



197 



went: — or, secondly, because tliey were not careful 
enongli after thev were safely remove d out of the 
toTSTis, not to come in again and mingle with the 
diseased people. 

But be it which of these it will, when our Tra- 
vellers began to perceive that the Plague was not 
only in the towns, but even in the tents and huts on 
the Forest near them, they began then not only to be 
afraid, but to think of decamping and removing ; for 
had they stayed, they would have been in manifest 
danger of their lives. 

It is not to be wondered that they were greatly 
afflicted, at being obliged to quit the place where 
they had been so kindly received, and where they 
had been treated with so much humanity and cha- 
rity ; but necessity, and the hazard of life, which 
they came out so far to preserve, prevailed with 
them, and they saw no remedy. John, however, 
thought of a remedy for their present misfortune, 
namely, that he would first acquaint that Gentle- 
man who was their principal benefactor T\ith the 
distress they were in, and crave his assistance and 
advice. 

The good charitable Gentleman encouraged them 
to quit the place, for fear they should be cut oiF from 
any retreat at all by the violence of the Distemper ; 
but whether they should go, that he found very hard 
to direct them to. At last John asked of him, whe- 
ther he (being a Justice of the peace) would give 
them certificates of Health to other Justices, whom 
they might come before ? that so, whatever might 
be their lot, they might not be repulsed now they 
had been all so long from London. This his worship 
immediately granted, and gave them proper letters 
of health, and from thence they were at liberty to 
travel whither they pleased. 



198 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

Aceordindv -h- '-^ ^ y:': -:-;^-:-e of HeKl:a. 

- - IT - - - " -V - - ' V _ 

ana scr'-v:m-Zr':i ?";.ii:cici-':.^\ ^t-'^ 
from all conver^^-ion ::r abo-e ^:r:v d^v,. 
any appearance oi sickness, rh-y ^:''e: e :ne:^:;:- cer- 
tainly concluded to be soimd :"_e7n . n ' v/i^n: be 

ra:ncr rrc-ni icar lee^"/- ^^an;/. ' n:: 

sucii a rovrn, than fer h;:"ee_ r:.' 
upon tliem, or upon any c-^in^m^ : :^-n:, 

"\Vitli tills ^certincate they removed, though with 

side of "^^'altham : but her- "hr^- :'-vo:f. : ^-^-hoj 
it seems, kept a wear or step u;: :.: :_0r w y. ;.e to 
raise the water tor the barges which : : , . hown 
the ri-er, and he terrihed fhem ~i:h hmh-.: -:n:es of 

thcin^crcV., E::n.:h^"^uk'^.^" ■ " ^ --U: 

the r.:c.h 'h- i: : . ^ _ - _ ; : -c. . rncu^n 

it seem- :^ ; ^::^n. for that the 

thing was : 

HowcTc] u. . they resolved to 

move r.c: :— -.^ h ~ " 1 Brent- 

wood; : "if h bar= rf 

people f : .l — hv:o:i';n :hro '^■:o,-. 
down ^' L:h:l IT a - "- - 

near 1 • vl 

babitariun, no: only 
extremities iu the v 
but were said to b- 
tremities, a- rha^ t: 
ooiuitv. ro' 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



199 



i the like; that others building huts and hovels by the 
I road-side, begged, and that with an importunity next- 
1 door to demanding relief ; so that the county was 
I very uneasy, and had been obliged to take some of 
them up. 

I This, in the first place, intimated to them, that 
they would be sure to find the charity and kindness 
of the county, which they had found here, where 
they were before, hardened and shut up against 
them ; and that, on the other hand, they would be 
questioned wherever they came, and would be in danger 
of violence from others in hke case as themselves. 

Upon all these considerations, John, their Captain, 
in all their names, went back to their good friend 
and benefactor, who had reheved them before, and 
laying their case truly before him, humbly asked his 
advice ; and he as kindly advised them to take up 
their old quarters again, or if not, to remove but 
a httle further out of the road, and directed them to 
a proper place for them ; and as they really wanted 
some house rather .than huts to shelter them at that 
time of the year, it growing on towards Michaelmas, 
they found an old decayed house, which had been 
formerly some cottage or little habitation, but was so 
out of repair as to be scarce habitable, and by the 
consent of a farmer to whose farm it belonged, they 
got leave to make what use of it they could. 

The ingenious Joiner, and all the rest by his direc- 
tions, went to work with it, and in a very few days 
made it capable to shelter them all, in case of bad 
weather ; and in it there was an old chimney and an 
old oven, though both lying in ruins, yet they made 
them both fit for use, and raising additions, sheds, 
and lean-to's on every side, they soon made the house 
capable to hold them all. 

They chiefly wanted boards to make window- 



200 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



shutters, floors, doors, and several other things ; but 
as the Gentlemen above favoured them, and the 
country was by that means made easy with them, 
and above all, that they were knov^ii to be all sound 
and in good health, everybody helped them with 
what they could spare. 

Here they encamped for good and all, and resolved 
to remove no more : they saw plainly how terribly 
alarmed that county was everwhere, at anybody 
that came from London ; and that they should have 
no admittance anywhere but vrith the utmost diffi- 
culty, at least no friendly reception and assistance as 
they had received here. 

Now, although they received great assistance and 
encouragement from the country' gentlemen and from 
the people round about them, yet they were put to 
great straits, for the weather grew cold and wet in 
October and November, and they had not been used 
to so much hardship ; so that they got colds in tlieir 
limbs, and distempers, but never had the Infection. 
— And thus about December they came home to the 
City again. 

I give this Story thus at large, principally to ac- 
count for the great numbers of people which imme- 
diately appeared in the City as soon as the sickness 
abated. For, as I have said, great numbers of those 
that were able and had retreats in the country, fled 
to those retreats : so when it was increased to such a 
frightful extremity as I have related, the middling 
people who had not friends, fled to all parts of the 
country where they could get shelter, as well those 
that had money to relieve themselves, as those that 
had not. Those that had money always fled farthest, 
because they were able to subsist themselves ; but 
those who were empty, suffered, as I have said, great 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE: 



201 



hardships, and were often driven by necessity to 
reUeve their wants at the expense of the country. 
By that means the country was made very uneasy at 
them, and sometimes took them up, though even 
then they scarce knew what to do with them, and 
were always rery backward to punish them ; but 
often too they forced them from place to place, till 
they were obliged to come back again to London. 

I have, since my knowing this Story of John and 
his brother, inquired and found, that there were a 
great many of the poor disconsolate people, as aboye^ 
who fled into the country every way ; and some of 
them got little sheds, and barns, and out -houses to 
Hve in, where they could obtain so much kindness of 
the country, and especially where they had any the 
least satisfactory accomit to give of themselves, and 
particularly that they did not come out of London 
too late. But others, and that in great numbers, 
built themselves little huts and retreats in the fields 
and woods, and lived like hermits in holes and caves, 
or any place they could find ; and where, we may be 
sure, they suffered great extremities, such, indeed, 
that many of them were obliged to come back again, 
whatever the danger was ; and so those httle huts 
were often found empty, and the country people 
supposed the inhabitants lay dead in them of the 
Plague, and would not go near them for fear — no, not 
in a great while. Nor is it unlikely but that some 
of the unhappy wanderers might die so all alone, 
even sometimes for want of help ; as particularly in 
one tent or hut, where was found a man dead, and 
on the gate of a field just by, was cut with his knife 
in uneven letters, the following words, — by which 
it may be supposed the other man escaped, or that 
one dying first, the other buried him as well as he 
could : — 



202 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



O m I s E r Y ! 
We Bo TH S h a L L D y E, 
W o E, W o E. 

I have given an Account already of wliat I found 
to have been the case down the River among the 
seafaring men^ how the ships lay in the offing, as it 
is called^ in rows, or lines, a-stem of one another, 
quite down from the Pool as far as I could see. I 
have been told that they lay in the same manner 
quite down the river as low as Gravesend, and some 
far beyond, even everywhere, or in every place 
where they could ride with safety as to wind and 
weather ; no3% did I ever hear that the Plague reached 
to any of the people on board those ships, except 
such as lay up in the Pool, or as high as Deptford 
Reach, although the people went frequently on shore 
to the country towns and villages, and farmers' houses, 
to buy fresh provisions, fowls, pigs, calves, and the 
like, for their supply. 

Likewise I found that the Watermen on the river 
above the Bridge * found means to convey themselves 
away up the river, as far as they could go; and that 
they had, many of them, their whole families in their 
boats, covered with tilts and bales, as they call them, 
and furnished with straw within for their lodging ; 
and that they lay thus all along by the shore in the 
marshes, some of them setting up little tents with 
their sails, and so lying under them on shore in the 
day, and going into their boats at night; and in this 
manner, as I have heard, the river sides were lined 
with boats and people as long as they had anything 
to subsist on, or could get anything of the country; 
and indeed the country people, as well gentlemen as 

That is, London Bridge : it should be recollected that there was 
no other metropolitan bridge until Westminster bridge was erected, 
between the years 1738 and 1747. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 203 

others, on these and all other occasions were very 
forward to relieve them, but they were by no means 
willing to receive them into their towns and houses, 
and for that we cannot blame them. 

There was one unhappy Citizen within my 
knowledge, who had been visited in a dreadful 
manner, so that his wife and all his children were 
dead, and himself and two servants only left with 
an elderly woman, a near relation, who had nursed 
those that were dead as well as she could : this dis- 
consolate man goes to a village near the toym, though 
not within the Bills of Mortality, and finding an 
empty house there, enquires out the owner, and took 
the house. After a few days he got a cart and 
loaded it with goods, and carried them down to 
the house ; the people of the village opposed his 
driving the cart along, but with some arguings, and 
some force, the men that drove the cart along, got 
through the street up to the door of the house ; there 
the constable resisted them again, and would not let 
them be brought in. The man caused the goods to 
be unloaden and laid at the door, and sent the cart 
away : upon which they carried the man before a 
Justice of peace ; that is to say, they commanded 
him to go, which he did. The Justice ordered him 
to cause the cart to fetch away the goods again, 
which he refused to do ; upon which the Justice 
ordered the constable to pursue the carters and fetch 
them back, and make them reload the goods and 
carry them away, or to set them in the stocks till 
they came for farther orders ; and if they could not 
find them, nor the man would not consent to take 
them away, they should cause them to be drawn 
with hooks from the house-door and burnt in the 
street. The poor distressed man upon this fetched 
the goods again, but with grievous cries and lamen- 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



tations at tlie hardship of his case. But there was 
no remedy ; self-preseryation obhged the people to 
those severities, which they would not othei^wi^ 
have been concerned in. Whether this poor mS3l 
lived or died I cannot tell, but it was reported thatj 
he had the Plague upon him at that time ; and, per- 
haps, the people might report that to justify their 
usage of him ; but it was not unlikely, that either he 
or his goods, or both, were dangerous, when his 
whole family had been dead of the Distemper so little 
a while before. 

I know that the inhabitants of the towns adjacent 
to London were much blamed for cruelty to the 
poor people that ran from the contagion in their 
distress ; and many veiy severe things were done, as 
may be seen from what has been said ; but I cannot 
but say, also, that where there was room for charity 
and assistance to the people, without apparent danger 
to themselves, they were willing enough to help and 
relieve them. But as all the towns were indeed 
judges in their own case, so the poor people who ran 
abroad in their extremities were often ill-used and 
driven back again into the town (or London); and 
this caused infinite exclamations and out-cries against 
the country towns, and made the clamour very 
popular. 

And yet more or less, maugre all the caution, there 
was not a town of any note "within ten (or, I believe, 
twenty) miles of the City, but what was more or less 
infected, and had some died among them. I have 
heard the accounts of several ; such as they were 
reckoned up as follows : — 

In Enfield . . .32 Baniet and Hadley \ 40 
Hornsey . . . 58 (Hadleigh) J ^'^ 

Newington . .17 St. Alban's . . 121 
Tottenham . . 42 Watford . . 45 
Edmonton . . 19 Uxbridge . . 117 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



205 



Hertford 

Ware 

Hodsdon 

Waltham Abbey 

Epping 

Deptford . 

Greenwich 



90 Brentwood . . 70 

160 Rumford . . . 109 

30 Barking . about 200 

23 Brentford . . 432 



26 Kingston 
623 Stanes (Staines) 
231 Chertsey 



122 
82 
18 
103 



Eltham and Lusum "1 Windsor . 

(Lewisham) J cum aliis,* 

Croydon . . 61 

Another thing might render the country more 
strict with respect to the citizens, and especially with 
respect to the poor ; and this was what I hinted at 
before, namely, that there was a seeming propensity, 
or a wicked incHnation in those that were infected, 
to infect others. 

There have been great debates among our Physi- 
cians, as to the reason of this : some will have it to 
be in the nature of the disease, and that it impresses 
every one that is seized upon by it with a kind of 
a rage, and a hatred against their own kind ; as if 
there was a malignity, not only in the Distemper to 
communicate itself, but in the very nature of man, 
prompting him with evil Will, or an evil Eye, — as 
they say in the case of a mad dog, who, though the 
gentlest creature before of any of his kind, yet then 
will fly upon and bite any one that comes next him, 
and those as soon as any, who have been most 
observed by him before. 

Others placed it to the account of the corruption of 
human nature, which cannot bear to see itself more 
miserable than others of its own species, and has a 
kind of involuntary wish, that all men were as 
unhappy, or in as bad a condition as itself. 

^' Scarcely any of the above numbers correspond with the 
numbers entered in the respective Parish Registers ; as may be 
ascertained from Lyson's ''Euvirons of London," and other local 
works. 



206 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGfE. 



OtHers say, it was ouIt a kind of desperation, not 
knowing or regarding what they did, and conse- 
quently unconcerned at the danger or safety, not 
only of anybody near them, but eyen of themselves 
also. And, indeed, when men are once come to a 
condition to abandon themselves, and be unconcerned 
for the safety, or at the danger of themselves, it 
cannot be so much wondered at that they should be 
careless of the safety of other people. 

But I choose to give this grave debate a quite 
different turn, and answer it, or resolve it all, by 
saying, That I do not grant the Fact." On the 
contrary, I say that the thing is not really so, but 
that it was a general complaint raised by the people 
inhabiting the out-hung villages against the citizens, 
to justify, or at least excuse, those hardships and 
severities so much talked of, and in which com- 
plaints, both sides may be said to have injured one 
another; — that is to say, the citizens pressing to be 
received and harbom-ed in time of distress, and with 
the Plague upon them, complain of the cruelty and 
injustice of the county people, in being refused 
entrance, and forced back agam with their goods and 
families ; and the inhabitants finding themselves so 
imposed upon, and the citizens breaking in, as it 
were, upon them, whether they would or no, com- 
plain, that when they were infected, they were not 
only regardless of others, but even willing to infect 
them : neither of which was really true, that is to 
say, in the colours they were described in. 

It is true, there is something to be said for the 
frequent alarms wliich were given to the country, of 
the resolution of the people of London to come out 
by force, not only for relief, but to plunder and rob ; 
that they ran about the streets with the Distemper 
upon them without any controul ; and that no care 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



207 



was taken to shut up houses, and confine the sick 
people from infecthig others ; whereas, to do the 
Londoners justice, they never practised such things, 
except in such particular cases as I have mentioned 
above, and such like. On the other hand, every 
thing was managed with so much care, ,ar?d such 
excellent order was observed in the whole City and 
suburbs, by the care of the Lord Mayor and alder- 
men, and by the Justices of the peace, church- 
wardens, &c. in the out-parts, that London may be 
a pattern to all the cities in the world for the good 
government and the excellent order that was every 
where kept, even in the time of the most violent 
infection, and when the people were in the utmost 
consternation and distress. But of this I shall speak 
by itself. 

One thing, it is to be observed, was owing princi- 
pally to the prudence of the Magistrates, and ought 
to be mentioned to their honour, viz , the moderation 
which they used in the great and difficult w^ork of 
shutting up of Houses. It is true, as I have men- 
tioned, that the shutting up of Houses was a great 
subject of discontent, and I may say, indeed, the 
only subject of discontent among the people at that 
time ; for the confining the sound in the same house 
vvith the sick, was counted very terrible, and the 
complaints of people so confined were very grievous ; 
they were heard into the very streets, and they w^ere 
sometimes such that called for resentment, though 
oftener for compassion. They had no way to con- 
verse with any of their friends but out at their 
windows, where they would make such piteous 
lamentations, as often moved the hearts of those they 
talked with, and of others who, passing by, heard 
their story: and as those complaints oftentimes re- 
proached the severity, and sometimes the insolence of 



208 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. || 

the Watchmen placed at their doors, those ^Yatch- 
men would answer saucily enough, and perhaps be . 
apt to affront the people who were in the street |j 
talking to the said families ; for which, or for their % 
ill-treatment of the families, I think seven or eight 
of them in several places were killed ; I know not 
whether I should say murdered or not, because I 
cannot enter into the particular cases. It is true, 
the Watchmen were on theh duty, and acting in the 
post where they were placed by a lawful authority ; 
and kilhng any pubhc legal officer in the execution 
of his office, is always in the language of the law 
called murder. But as they were not authorised by 
the Magistrates' instructions, nor by the power they 
acted under, to be injurious or abusive, either to the 
people who vrere under their observation, or to any 
that concerned themselves for them ; so when they 
did so, they might be said to act themselves, not 
their office ; to act as private persons, not as persons 
employed ; and consequently, if they brought mis- 
chief uppn themselves by such an midue behaviour, 
that mischief was upon their own heads. Indeed, 
they had so much the hearty curses of the people, 
whether they deserved it or not, that whatever befel 
them, nobody pitied them, and everybody was apt to 
say they deserved it, whatever it was ; nor do I 
remember that anybody was ever punished, at least 
to any considerable degree, for Avhatever was done to 
the Watchmen that guarded their houses. 

What variety of stratagems were used to escape 
and get out of Houses thus shut up, by which the 
Watchmen were deceived and overpowered, and that 
the people got away, I have taken notice of already, 
and shall say no more to that : but I say the Ma- 
gistrates did moderate and gase families upon many 
occasions in this case, and particularly in that of 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



209 



taking away or suffering to be removed the sick per- 
sons out of such houses, when they were wilhng to 
be removed either to a Pest-house, or other places ; 
■ and sometimes by gi™g the well persons in the 
family so shut up, leave to remove upon inform.ation 
given that they were well, and that they would con- 
fine themselves in such houses where they went, so 
long as should be required of them.^ The concern 
also of the Magistrates for the supplying such poor 
famihes as were infected ; I say, supplying them with 
necessaries, as vrell physic as food, was very great, 
and in which they did not content themselves with 
giving the necessary orders to the officers ap- 
pointed, but the xildermen in person, and on horse- 
back frequently rode to such houses, and caused the 
people to be asked at their windows, whether they 
j were duly attended or not ? Also, whether they 
wanted anything that was necessary, and if the 
officers had constantly carried their messages, and 
fetched them such things as they wanted or not?^ — 
and if they answered in the affirmative, all was well ; 
but if they complained that they were ill supplied, 
: and that the officer did not do his duty, or did not 
I treat them civilly, they (the officers) were generally 
1 removed, and others placed in their stead. 

It is true, such complaint might be unjust, and if 
the officer had such arguments to use as would con- 
vince the Magistrate that he was right, and that the 
people had injured him, he was continued, and they 
reproved. But this part could not bear a particular 

* la different parts of his work, De Foe delivers contradictory 
opioions as to the advantage or disadvantage of shutting up Houses, 

I where the inhabitants were affected. He also states (see page 70) 
in opposition to what he affirms above, that "there was no obtaining 

I the least mitigation"- — of the mischief resulting from such confine- 
ment — by any application to Magistrates, or Government, at that 
time." 

i 



210 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



inquiry, for tlie parties could very ill be brought face 
to face, and a complaint could not be well heard and 
answered in the street, from the windows, as was the 
case then; the Magistrates therefore generally chose 
to favour the people, and remove the man, as what 
seemed to be the least wrong, and of the least ill 
consequence ; seeing, if the Watchman was injured, 
yet they could easily make him amends by giving 
him another post of the hke nature : but if the 
family was injured, there was no satisfaction could 
be made to them, the damage perhaps being irre- 
parable, as it concerned their lives. 

A great variety of these cases frequently happened 
between the "^Yatchmen and the poor people shut up, 
beside those I formerly mentioned about escaping; 
sometimes the Watchmen were absent, sometimes 
drunk, sometimes asleep when the people wanted 
them, and such never failed to be pmiished severely, 
as indeed they deserved. 

But after all that was or could be done in these 
cases, the shutting up of Houses, so as to confine 
those that were well with those that were sick, had 
very great inconveniences in it, and some that were 
very tragical, and which merited to have been con- 
sidered, if there had been room for it ; but it was 
authorised by a Law, it had the public Good in vievr, 
as the end chiefly aimed at, and all the private injmies 
that were done by the putting it in execution, must 
be put to the account of the public benefit. 

It is doubtful to this day, whether in the whole it 
contributed anything to the -stop of the Infection, 
and indeed, I cannot say it did ; for nothing could 
run with greater fury and rage than the Infection 
did -when it was in its chief violence ; though the 
houses infected were shut up as exactly, and as 
effectually as it was possible. Certain it is, that if 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



211 



all tlie infected persons were effectually shut in, no 
sound person could have been infected by them, 
because they could not have come near them. But 
the case was this, and I shall only touch it here, 
namely, that the Infection was propagated insensibly, 
and by such persons as were not visibly infected, who 
neither knew who they infected, nor whom they were 
infected by. 

A house in "White- chap el was shut up for the sake 
of one infected maid, who had only spots, not the 
tokens, come out upon her, and recovered ; yet these 
people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for air nor 
exercise, forty days. Want of breath, fear, anger, 
vexation, and all the other griefs attending such an 
mjurious treatment, cast the mistress of the family 
into a fever, and visitors came into the house, and 
said it was the Plague, though the physicians de- 
clared it was not ; however, the family were obliged 
to begin their quarantine anew, on the report of the 
visitor or examiner, though their former quarantine 
wanted but a few days of being finished. This 
oppressed them so with anger and grief, and, as 
before, straitened them also so much as to room, and 
for want of breathing and free air, that most of the 
family fell sick, one of one distemper, one of another, 
chiefly scorbutic ailments ; only one a violent cohc, 
till after several prolongings of their confinement, 
some or other of those that came in with the visitors 
to inspect the persons that were ill, in hopes of 
releasing them, brought the Distemper with them, 
and infected the whole house, and all or most of them 
died, — not of the Plague as really upon them before, 
but of the Plague that those people brought them, 
who should have been careful to have protected them 
from it; and this was a thing which frequently hap- 
p 2 



212 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

pened, and was indeed one of the worst consequences 
of shutting Houses up. 

I had about this time a httle hardship put upon 
me, which I vras at first greatly afflicted at, and very 
much disturbed about ; though, as it proved, it did 
not expose me to any disaster ; and this was being 
appomted, by the aldermen of Portsoken ward, one 
of the Examiners of the houses in the precinct where 
I lived. We had a large parish, and had no less 
than eighteen Examiners, as the order called iis ; the 
people called us visitors. I endeavoured with all 
my might to be excused from such an employment, 
and used many arguments with the alderman's deputy 
to be excused : particularly I alleged, that I was 
against shutting up Houses at all, and that it would 
be very hard to oblige me to be an instrmnent in that 
which was against my judgment, and which I did 
verily believe would not answer the end it was intended 
for; but all the abatement I could get was only, that 
whereas the officer was appointed by my Lord Mayor 
to continue two months, I should be obliged to hold 
the office but three weeks; on condition, nevertheless, 
that I could then get some other sufficient house- 
keeper to sene the rest of the time for me, which 
was, in short, but a very small favour, it being very 
difficult to get any man to accept of such an employ- 
ment, that was fit to be intrusted with it. 

It is true, that shutting up of Houses had one effect, 
which I am sensible was of moment, namely, it con- 
fined the distempered people, who would otherwise 
have been both very troublesome and very dangerous 
in their running about streets with the Distemper 
upon them, which, when they were delirious, they 
would have done in a most frightful manner, and as 
indeed they began to do at first ver}' much, till they 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



213 



were thus restrained ; ^ nay, so very open they were, 
that the poor would go ahout and beg at people's 
doors, and say they had the Plague upon them, and 
beg rags for their sores, or both, or anything that 
delirious nature happened to think of. 

A poor unhappy Gentlewoman, a substantial citi- 
zen's wife, was (if the story be true) murdered by 
one of these creatures in Aldersgate-street, or that 
way : he was going along the street, racing mad to 
be sure, and singing; the people only said he was 
drunk, but he himself said he had the Plague upon 
him, which, it seems, was true ; and meetmg this 
gentlewoman, he would kiss her ; she was terribly 
frighted, as he was only a rude fellow, and she ran 
from him, but the street being very thin of people, 
there was nobody near enough to help her : when 
she saw he would overtake her, she turned and gave 
him a thrust so forcibly, he being but weak, that it 
pushed him down backward. But very unhappily, 
she being so near, he caught hold of her, and pulled 
her dovm. also ; and getting up first, mastered her, 
and kissed her ; and which was worst of all, when 
he had done, told her he had the Plague, and why 

^ Similar exposures took place during the subsiding of the Pes- 
tilencCj as we learn from the respective Diaries" of Evelyn and 
Pepvs. The former, under the date October lltb, says — Went 
through the whole City, when having occasion to alight in several 
places about business of money, I was environed with multitudes of 
poor pestiferous creatures, begging alms : the shops universally shut 
up, a dreadful prospect.'' Pepys on the 16th of October wrote 
thus : — '* Walked to the Tower | but Lord ! how empty the streets 
are and melancholy, so many poor sick people in the streets full of 
sores ; and so many sad stories overheard as I walk, — everybody 
talking of this dead, and that man sick, and so many in this place, 
and so many in that. And they tell me that in Westminster, there 
is never a Physician, and but one Apothecary left, all being dead ; 
yet there are great hopes of a great decrease this week : God 
send it I" 



214 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



should not she have it as vrell as he ? She was 
frighted enough before^ being also great with child ; 
but when she heard him sav he had the Plao:ue, she 
screamed out, and fell down in a swoon, or in a fit, 
which though she recovered a little, yet killed her in 
a very few days, and I never heard whether she had 
the Plague or no.^ 

xlnother infected person came, and knocked at the 
door of a citizen's house, where they knew him veiy 
well ; the servant let him in, and being told the 
master of the house was above, he ran up, and came 
into the room to them as the whole family was at 
supper. They began to rise up a little surprised, not 
knowing what the matter was, but he bid them sit 
still, he only came to take his leave of them. They 
asked him, — ^^why, Mr. , where are you going ? 

Going ? " says he : "I have got the Sickness, and 
shall die to-morrow night." It is easy to believe, 
though not to describe, the consternation they were 
all in; the women and the man's daughters, which 
were but little girls, were frighted almost to death, 
and got up, one running out at one door, and one at 
another, some down stairs, and some up stairs, and 
getting together as well as they could, locked them- 
selves into their chambers, and screamed out at the 
window for help, as if they had been frighted out of 

* There is a tale somewhat apposite to this, related by Fabri- 
cius, (**Misc. Ciir." Ann. II. Obs. 188,) as occurring in Holland, 
■when the Plague raged there in 1636 ; and which Dr. Darwin has 
interwoven into one of his poems. Fabricius relates that during 
the Pestilence, a young girl, who was seized with it and had three 
carbuncles, was removed to a garden, where her lover, who was 
betrothed to her, attended her as nurse, and slept with her as his 
wife. He remained uninfected, and she recovered, and was married 
to him. 

"Love round their couch effused his rosy breath, 
And with his keener arrows conquered Death." 

" Economy of Vegetation/' Canto lY. 



|j MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 215 

' their wits. The master, more composed than thej, 
though both frighted and provoked^ was going to lay- 
hands on him, and throw him down stairs, being in 
\ a passion; but then considering a little the condition 
Ij of the man, and the danger of touching him, horror 
i seized his mind, and he stood still like one astonished. 
The poor distempered man all this while, being as 
well diseased in his brain as in his body, stood still 
Hke one amazed ; at length he turns round: Ay,'' 
says he, with all the seeming calmness imaginable, 
is it so with you all ? are you all disturbed at me ? 
ichy then I'll e'en go home and die there : " and so he 
goes immediately down stairs. The servant that had 
let him in goes clown after him with a candle, but was 
afraid to go past him and open the door, so he stood 
on the stairs to see what he would do ; the man went 
and opened the door, and went out and flung the door 
after him. It was somewhile before the family re- 
covered the fright, but as no ill consequence attended, 
they have had occasion since to speak of it (you mxay 
be sure) T\ith great satisfaction. Though the man was 
gone, it was some time, nay, as I heard, some days, 
! before they recovered themselves of the hurry they 
were in ; nor did they go up and down the house 
with any assurance, till they had burnt a great variety 
of fumes and perfumes in all the rooms, and made a 
great many smokes of pitch, of gunpowder, and of 
sulphur, and till all had separately shifted, washed 
their clothes, and the like. As to the poor man, 
whether he lived or died I do not remember. 

It is most certain, that if by the shutting up of 
Houses the sick had not been confined, multitudes 
who in the height of their fever were delirious and 
distracted, would have been continually running up 
and down the streets, and even as it was, a very great 
number did so, and offered all sorts of violence to 



216 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



tliose they met : even just as a mad dog runs on and 
bites at every one he meets ; nor can I doubt but that i 
should one of those infected diseased creatures have 
bitten any man or woman, while the frenzy of the 
Distemper was upon them^ they, I mean the person j 
so wounded, would as certainly have been incurably 
infected, as one that was sick before, and had the 
tokens upon him."^ 

I heard of one poor infected Creature, who, running i 
out of his bed in his shirt, in the anguish and agony ji 
of his swellings, of which he had three upon him, got ^ 
his shoes on, and went to put on his coat, but the 
nurse resisting and snatching the coat from him, he 
threw her down, ran over her, ran down stairs, and 
into the street directly to the Thames in his shirt, the 
nurse running after him, and calling to the watch to 
stop him ; but the watchman, frighted at the man, 
and afraid to touch him, let him go on. Upon 
vdiich he ran down to the Steel-yard stairs, threw 
away his shirt, and plunged into the Thames, and, 
being a good swimmer, swam quite over the river ; 
and the tide being come in, as they call it, that is 
running westward, he reached the land not till he 
came about the Falcon- stairs, where landing, and 
finding no people there, it being in the night, he ran 
about the streets there; naked as he was, for a good 
while; when it being by that time high-water, he 
takes the river again, and swam back to the Steel- 
yard, landed, ran up the streets again to his own 
house, knocking at the door, went up the stairs, and 
into his bed again; and that this terrible experiment 
cured him of the Plague : that is to say, that the 
violent motion of his arms and legs stretched the 
parts where the swellings he had upon him were 

* In such a case as De Foe supposes, the Infection most probably 
Avould be produced by the contact ; but not by the bite^ 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



217 



I (that is to sav, under his arms and his groin), and 
I caused them to ripen and break ; and that the cold 
of the water abated the ferer in his blood. 

I I have only to add, that I do not relate this, any 

j.| more than some of the other, as a fact within my 
own knowledge, so as that I can Touch the truth of 
them, — and especially that of the man being cured 

i by this extravagant adventure, which I confess I do 
not think very possible ; ^ but it may serve to con- 

j firm the many desperate things which the distressed 
people, — falling into deliriums, and what we call light- 
headedness, — frequently run upon at that time, and 
' how infinitely more such there vv^ould have been, if 
such people had not been confined by the shutting 

* De Foe, as he often shows himself to have heea too credulous, 
so he is here too sceptical. There are on record several authentic 
(i relations of persons in the delirium of fever having been cured by 
. jumping into a cold bath ; and there can be no doubt but that in 
some cases of Plague, cold bathing might be very advantageous, 
■i Vide Dr. Currie's Medical Reports on the effects of V/ater in 
! Febrile Diseases." 

An extraordinary instance of the water mania in Fever, and of 
.' an alleged cure from its being indulged, is thus related in a Tract 
that was published in the Plague year : — Thomas a Vega, a 
learned Physician, tells a story of one that was light-headed, and 
sick of a burning fever, and being in great heat, was extremely 
importunate that he might have leave to swim in that pool there 
I (pointing with his hand to the floor of the chamber, which he 
fancied to be water), for, said he, /// should but swim there, I 
should he immediately well. At length the Physician being over- 
|t come with his intreaty, gave him leave; and presently with great 
M content he gets out of the bed, and cheerfully rolls himself upon 
the floor, saying, The xvater zvas now as high as his knees, but 
he could wish it deeper; bye-and-bye he was more pleased that 
I it was up to his middle, and withal he wished it a little higher, 
j and presently after he seemed to be overjoyed, for that the water 
' came up to his chin, and then he said 'He was very well ;^ 
and so he was, indeed, for he presently recovered." — A Brief Trea- 
j tise of the Nature, Causes, &c. of the Pestilence, collected by W. 
j Kemp, Master of Arts. London, 1665, p. 23. 



218 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



up of Houses ; and this I take to be tlie best^ if not 
tbe only good thing which was performed by that ; 
severe method. 

On the other hand^ the complaints and the mur- ■ 
murings were very bitter against the thing itself. 

It would pierce the hearts of all that came by to 
hear the piteous cries of those infected people, whr^. 
being thus out of their understandings by the vio- 
lence of their pain, or the heat of their blood, were 
either shut in, or perhaps tied in their beds and 
chairs, to prevent their doing themselves hurt, and 
who would make a dreadful outcry at their being 
confined, and at their not being permitted to die 
at large, as they called it, and as they would have 
done before. 

This running of distempered people about the 
streets was very dismal, and the Magistrates did 
their utmost to prevent it; but as it was generally in 
the night, and always sudden, when such attempts 
were made, the officers could not be at hand to pre- 
vent it, and even when they got out in the day, the 
officers appointed did not care to meddle with them, 
because, as they were all grievously infected to be sure 
when they were come to that height, so they were 
more than ordinarily infectious, and it was one of the 
most dangerous things that could be to touch themx. 
On the other hand, they generally ran on, not know- 
ing what tliey did, till they dropped down stark 
dead, or till they had exhausted their spirits so as 
that they would fall, and then die in perhaps half- 
an-hour or an hour ; and what was most piteous to 
hear, they were sure to come to themselves entirely 
in that half-hour or hour, and then to make most 
grievous and piercing cries and lamentations in the 
deep afflicting sense of the condition they were in. 
This was much of it before the Order for shutting 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



219 



I up of Houses was strictly put in execution, for at 
I (j first the watchmen were not so rigorous and severe, 
li as they were afterward, in the keeping the people in ; 
' that is to say, before they were, I mean some of 
them, severely punished for their neglect, failing in 
I their duty, and letting people who were under their 
are slip away, or conniving at their going abroad, 
whether sick or w^ell. But after they saw the officers 
appointed to examine into their conduct were re- 
solved to have them do their duty, or be punished 
for the omission, they were more exact, and the 
people were strictly restrained ; which was a thing 
they took so ill, and bore so impatiently, that their 
discontents can hardly be described : but there was 
i an absolute necessity for it, that must be confessed, 
unless some other measures had been timely entered 
upon, and it was too late for that. 

Had not this particular of the sick being restrained 
as above, been our case at that time, London would 
have been the most dreadful place that ever was in 
the world ; there would, for aught I know, have as 
many people died in the streets as died in their 
I houses ; for w^hen the Distemper was at its height, it 
I generally made them raving and delirious, and when 
' they were so, they would never be persuaded to keep 
in their beds but by force ; and many, who were not 
tied, threw themselves out of windows, when they 
found they could not get leave to go out of their 
doors. 

It was for want of people conversing one with. 
another, in this time of calamity, that it was im- 
possible any particular person could come at the 
knowledge, of all the extraordinary cases that occurred 
in diiferent families ; and particularly I believe it 
was never known to this day how many people in 



220 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



their deliriums drowned tliemselves in the Thames,* 
and in the rirer Tvhich runs from the marshes by 
Hackney, which ttc generally called Ware River, or 
Hackney River : as to those which were set down in-jb 
the T^'^eekly Bill, they were indeed few ; nor could it\ i 
be known of any of those, whether they drowned; I 
themselves by accident or not. But I believe, Ifi 
might reckon up more, who, within the compass of 
my knowledge or observation, really drowned them-»}i 
selves in that year, than are put down in the Bill of 
all pat together, for many of the bodies were never 
fomid, vdio yet were known to be so lost : — and the 
like, in other methods of self-destruction. There was 
also one man, in or about TThitecross-street, who 
burnt hmiself to death in his bed ; some said it was 
done by himseh'', others that it was by the treachery 
of the nurse that attended him; but that he had the ^ 
Plague upon him was agreed by all. 

It was a merciful disposition of Providence also, 
and which I have many times thought of since that 
time, that no Fires, or no considerable ones at least, 
happened in the City, during that year, which, if it [ 
had been otherwise, would have been very dreadfrd ; li 
and either the people must have let them alone un 
quenched, or have come together in great crowds and t 
throngs unconcerned at the danger of the Infection, 

* In the Bills of ]Mortality, the number of persons returned 
drowned in the Plague year did not amount to so many as in either 
of the two preceding years, or of the seven succeeding ones, as wili 
be seen by the following table : — 

DROWNED. DROWNED. 

In 1661 . 57 In 1667 - 72 



1662 . 43 1068 

1603 . 56 1669 

1664 . 62 1 1670 

1665 50 ^671 

1666 . 68 1672 



63 
62 
82 
78 
74 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 221 

^md not concerned at tlie houses they went into^ at the 
jjgoods they handled^ or at the persons of the people 
ijthey came among. But so it was^ that excepting 
ithat in Cripplegate parish, and two or three httle 
leruptions of fires, which were presently extinguished, 
Ijthere was no disaster of that kind happened in the 
ifwhole year. They told us a story of a house in a 
jlplace called Swan-alley, passing from Goswell-street 
!-near the end of Old-street into St. John-street, that 
pa family was infected there, in so terrible a manner 
that every one of the house died; the last person lay 
i^dead on the floor, and as it is supposed, had laid her- 
iself all along to die just before the fire : the fire it 
iseems had fallen from its place, being of wood, and 
ihad taken hold of the boards and the joists they lay 
on, and burnt as far as just to the body, but had not 
jtaken hold of the dead body, though she had httle 
more than her shift on, and had gone out of itself, 
Qot hurting the rest of the house, though it was a 
j'shght timber house. How true this might be, I do 
iiot determine; but the City being to suffer severely 
'the next year by fire, this year it felt very httle of 
that calamity. 

Indeed, considering the deliriuras which the agony 
threw people into, and how, I have mentioned, in 
i:heir madness, when they were alone, they did many 
iesperate things ; it was very strange there were no 
more disasters of that kind. 

It has been frequently asked me, and I cannot say 
that I ever knew how to give a direct answer to it. 
How it came to pass that so many infected people 
appeared abroad in the streets, at the same time that 
jthe Houses which were infected were so vigilantly 
searched, and all of them shut up and guarded as 
jthey were ?" 

I confess, I know not what answer to give to this, 



222 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



unless it be tliis, that in so great and populous a City 1 
as this is, it was impossible to discover every house 
that w^as infected as soon as it was so, or to shut up 
all the houses that were infected: so that people had! 
the liberty of going about the streets, even where^ 
they pleased, unless they were known to belong tc 
such and such infected houses. 

It is true, that as several physicians told my Lore | 
Mayor, the fuiy of the Contagion was such at some^ , 
particular times, and people sickened so fast, anc r 
died so soon, that it was impossible, and indeed to ne j 
purpose, to go about to inquire who was sick and whe. j 
w^as well, or to shut them up with such exactness as [, 
the thing required ; almost every house in a whok; f, 
street being infected, and in many places every persoi; j 
in some of the houses ; and that which was stil; ^ 
worse, by the time that the houses were known to hi \ 
infected, most of the persons infected w^ould be stone 
dead, and the rest run away for fear of being shut 
up ; so that it was to very small purpose to call then:^ | 
infected houses and shut them up ; the Infectioni 
having ravaged, and taken its leave of the house, 
before it was really known that the family was any 
W'ay touched. p ^, 

This might be sufficient to convince any reasonabl^f 
person, that it w^as not in the power of the Magiu 
strates, or of any human methods or policy, to preveni 
the spreading of the Infection ; so that this way o\ 
shutting up of Houses was perfectly insufficient foij 
that end. Indeed, it seemed to have no manner oV | 
public good in it, equal or proportionable to the | 
grievous burthen that it was to the particular fami- j 
lies that were so shut up ; and as far as I was em- j 
ployed by the pubhc in directing that severity, iL 
frequently found occasion to see, that it was incapable^ ^„ 
of answering the end. For example, as I was desired 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



223 



Ij as a Visitor, or Examiner, to inquire into the particu- 
' lars of several families which were infected, we scarce 
j came to any house where the Plague had visibly ap- 
' peared in the family, but that some of the family 
were fled and gone ; the magistrates would resent 
I this, and charge the examiners with being remiss in 
their examination or inspection, as by that means 
houses were long infected before it was known. Now, 
as I was in this dangerous office but half the appointed 
time, which was two months, it was long enough to 
inform myself, that we were no way capable of coming 
] at the knowledge of the true state of any family, but 
I by inquiring at the door, or of the neighbours. As 
for going to every house to search, that was a part 
no authority would offer to impose on the inhabitants, 
^ or any citizen would undertake, for it would have 
: been exposing us to certain Infection and Death, and 
to the ruin of our own families as well as of ourselves; 
nor would any citizen of probity, and that could be 
depended upon, have staid in the town, if they had 
been made liable to such a severity. 
^ Seeing then that we could come at the certainty 
!j of things by no method but that of inquiry of the 
I neighbours, or of the family, — and on that we could 
\] not justly depend, — it was not possible but that the 
1 uncertainty of this matter would remain as above. 
' It is true, masters of families were bound by the 
> order, to give notice to the Examiner of the place 
wherein he lived, within two hours after he should 
^ discover it, of any person being sick in his house, 
that is to say, having signs of the Infection ; but 
'\ they found so many ways to evade this, and excuse 
their negligence, that they seldom gave that notice, 
till they had taken measures to have every one escape 
J out of the house, who had a mind to escape, whether 
i they were sick or sound; and while this was so, it is 



224 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



easv to see, tliar the shuttmg iip of Houses was no . 
way to be depended upon, as a sufficient method for , 
putthig a stop to the Infection: because, as I have 
said elsewhere, many of those that so went out of 
those infected houses had the Plague really upon i 
them, though they might really think themselves ] 
sound : and some of these were the people that ] 
walked the streets till they fell down dead, — not that | 
they were suddenly struck vvdth the Distemper, as ] 
^vitli a buhet that kihed with the stroke, but that j 
they really had the Infection in their blood long ' 
before; only, that as it preyed secretly on the vitals, 
it appeared not till it seized the heart with a mortal 
power, and the patient ched in a moment, as with a 
sudden fainting, or an apopletic ht.^ 

I know that some, even of our Physicians, thought, 
for a time, that those people that so ched in the 
streets were seized but that moment they fell, as if 
they had been touched by a stroke from Heaven, as 
men are killed by a flash of lightning ; but they found 
reason to alter their opimon aftervrard ; for upon 
examining the bodies of such, after they were dead, ^ 
they always either had tokens upon them, or other ' 
evident proofs of the Distemper hawing been longer " 
upon them than they had otherwise expected. 

This often was the reason that, as I have said, we 
that were Examiners were not able to come at the 
knowledge of the Infection being entered into a house . 

* Dr. Alex. Russell remarks, ir. his Diary of :i. _ Pi ■ ; •. :• at 
Aleppo, ia the years 1742, &c., " :i :.: sod.c f hi: re 
attacked with the Difren:--?, i huem, i 

a Jewess, who was a ; miting, . 

complained of chillinei; . lu _i ... i;, . : _ ' in less 

thau five hours : the corpse was covered with biach xs, and the 
arms became quite black." — ^' A Jew-hoy," he coniinue?, •■ and two . 
Turks, perished much in the same manner." — See " Natural HiSt. 
of Aleppo," vol. ii. p. 342. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGrE. 



225 



till it v>-as too late to shut it up; and sometimes not 
till the people that vrere left were all cleacl. In Pet- 
I' ticoat-lane two houses together were infected^ and 
j several people sick: hut the Distemper was so well 
, concealed, that the Examiner, who was my neigh- 
1 bour, got no knowledge of it, till notice was sent 
Mm that the people v\-ere all dead, and that the carts 
should call there to fetch them away. The two 
heads of the families concerted their measures, and 
so ordered their matters, as that when the Examiner 
was in the neighhourhood, they appeared generally 
at a time, and answered, that is, lied for one another: 
or got some of the neighbourhood to say they were 
all in health, and, perhaps, knew no better, till 
death making it impossible to keep it any longer as a 
secret, the Dead-carts were called in the night to 
both the houses, and so it became public: but when 
the Examiner ordered the constable to shut up the 
houses, there was nobody left in them but three 
people, two in one house, and one in the other, just 
dying, and a nurse in each house, who acknowledged 
that they had buried five before, that the houses had 
been infected nine or ten days, and that for all the 
j rest of the two famihes, v'hich were many, they 
were gone, some sick, some well, or whether sick or 
. well, could not be known. 

In like manner, at another house in the same lane, 
i a man, having his family infected, but very unwilling 
to be shut up, when he could conceal it no longer, 
, shut up himself: that is to say, he set the great Red 
f Cross upon his door, vdth the words — Loud have 
« MERCY rpox rs : and so deluded the Examiner, 
I who supposed it had been done by the constable, by 
^ order of the other Examiner, for there were two 
i Examiners to every district or precinct ; by this 
1 means he had free esress and repress into his house 



226 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



again, and out of it, as lie pleased, notwithstanding it 
was infected; till at length his stratagem was found 
out, and then he, with, the sound part of his servants 
and family, made off, and escaped; so they were not 
shut up at all. 

These things make it very hard, if not impossible, 
as I have said, to prevent the spreading of an Infec- 
tion, by the shutting up of Houses, unless the people 
would think the shutting up of their houses no 
grievance, and be so willing to have it done, as that 
they would give notice duly and faithfully to the 
Magistrates of their being infected, as soon as it was 
known by themselves : but as that cannot be expected 
from them, and as the Examiners cannot be supposed, 
as above, to go into their houses to visit and search, 
all the good of shutting up Houses will be defeated, 
and few houses will be shut up in time, except those 
of the poor who cannot conceal it, and of some people 
who will be discovered by the terror and conster- 
nation which the thing puts them into. 

I got m_yself discharged of the dangerous office I 
was in, as soon as I could get another admitted, 
whom I had obtained for a little money to accept of 
it ; and so, instead of serving the two months, which 
was directed, I was not above three weeks in it; and 
a great while too, considering it was in the month of 
August, at w^hich time the Distemper began to rage 
with great violence at our end of the town. 

In the execution of this office, I could not refrain 
speaking my opinion among my neighbours, as to this 
Shutting up the people in their Houses ; in v/hich we 
saw most evidently the severities that were used, 
though grievous in themselves, had also this par- 
ticular objection against them, namely, that tJiey did 
not answer the e?id, as I have said, but that the 
distempered people went, day by day, about the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



22/ 



streets ; and it was our united opinion^ that a method 
to have removed the sound from the sick, in ease of 
a particular house being visited, would have been 
much more reasonable, on many accounts, leaving 
nobody with the sick persons, but such as should, on 
' such occasion, request to stay and declare themselves 
content to be shut up with them. 

Our scheme for removing those that were sound 
from those that were sick, was only in such houses 
as were infected, and confining the sick was no 
confinement ; those that could not stir would not 
complain while they were in their senses, and while 
they had the power of judging : indeed, when they 
came to be delirious and light-headed, then they 
would cry out of the cruelty of being confined; — but 
for the removal of those that were well, we thought it 
highly reasonable and just, for their own sakes, they 
should be removed from the sick; and that, for other 
people's safety, they should keep retired for a while, to 
see that they were sound, and might not infect others ; 
and we thought twenty or thirty days enough for this. 
Now, certainly, if houses had been provided on 
!j purpose for those that were sound to perform this 
!| demi- quarantine in, they would have much less 
1 1 reason to think themselves injured in such a restraint 
than in being confined with infected people in the 
houses where they lived. 

It is here, however, to be observed, that after the 
( Funerals became so many, that people could not toll 
the Bell, mourn, or weep, or wear Black for one 
another, as they did before ; no, nor so much as 
' make Coffins for those that died; so after a while the 
I fury of the Infection appeared to be so increased, that 
j in short, they shut up no houses at all.* It seemed 

* This is corroborated by an entry in Pepys' " Diary," under 
j the date of September the 14tb. After stating, that he went upon 



228 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



enough that all the remedies of that kind had been 
used till they were found fruitless, and that the 
Plague spread itself with an irresistible fury ; so 
that, as the Fire, the succeeding year, spread itself, 
and burnt with such violence, that the citizens, in 
despair, gave over their endeavours to extinguish it, 
so in the Plague, it came at last to such violence, 
that the people sat still, looking at one another, and 
seemed quite abandoned to despair. Whole streets j 
seemed to be desolated, and not to be shut up only, 
but to be emptied of their inhabitants; doors were 
left open, and windows stood shattering with the 
wind in empty houses for want of people to shut 
them. In a word, people began to give up themselves 
to their fears, and to think that all regulations and 
methods were in vain, and that there was nothing to 
be hoped for, but an universal Desolation : and it 
was even in the height of this general despair, that 
it pleased God to stay his hand, and to slacken the 
fury of the Contagion, in such a manner, as was even 
surprising, (like its beginning,) and demonstrated it 
to be his own particular Hand, and that above, if not 
without, the Agency of Means, as I shall take notice \ 
of in its proper place. 

But I must still speak of the Plague, as in its 
height, raging even to desolation, and the people 
under the most dreadful consternation, even, as I 
have said, to despair. It is hardly credible to what 
excesses the passions of men carried them in this 
extremity of the Distemper ; and this part, I think, 
was as mo^dng as the rest. What could affect a man 

'Change, which he wondered to see so full, " ahout *200 people, but 
plain men all, he proceeds thus : — And Lord! to see how I did 
endeavour all I could to talk with as few as 1 could, there being 
now no observation of shutting up of Houses infected, that to be 
sure we do converse and meet with people that have the Plague 
upon them." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



229 



in liis full power of reflection; and what could make 
deeper impressions on the Soul, than to see a Man, 
( almost naked, and got out of his house, or perhaps 
out of his bed into the street, come out of Harrow- 
alley, (a populous conjunction or collection of alleys, 
courts, and passages in the Butcher-row, in T\liite- 
chapel) — I say, what could be more affecting, than 
to see this poor Man come out into the open street, 
run dancing and singing, and making a thousand 
antic gestures, with fiye or six women and children 
running after him, crying and calling upon him, for 
the Lord's sake, to come back, and entreating the 
help of others to bring him back ? — but all in yain, 
nobody daring to lay a hand upon him, or to come 
near him ! 

This was a most grieyous and afflicting thing to 
me, who saw it all from my own windows ; for all 
this while the poor afflicted Man was, as I obseryed 
it, eyen then in the utmost agony of pain, haying, as 
they said, two swellings upon him, which could not 
be brought to break, or to suppurate ; but by lading 
strong caustics on them, the surgeons had, it seems, 
j hopes to break them, which caustics were then upon 
; him, burning his flesh as with a hot iron. I cannot 
say what became of this poor Man, but I think he 
continued roying about in that manner till he fell 
down and died. 

No wonder the aspect of the City itself was 
' frightful, the usual concourse of people in the streets, 
and which used to be supplied from our end of the 
town, was abated ; the Exchange was not kept shut 
indeed, but it was no more frequented,* the Fires 

* In the Newes," of August the 2nd (No. 60) is the following 
' passage, viz. — " The City of London heing left somewhat thin of 
people, hy reason of the present Visitation, the Royal Exchange 
is shut up for a while, according to the practice of former times, 



230 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGI'E. 



were lost, tliev had been almost extmguished for 
some days, by a very smart and hasty rain : but that 
Tvas not alb some of the Physicians insisted, that 
they were not only no benefit, but injurious to the 
health of people. This they made a great clamour 
about, and complained to the Lord Mayor about it. 
On the other hand, others of the same faculty, and 
eminent too, opposed them, and gave their reasons 
why the Fhes were and must be useful to assuage 
the violence of the Distemper. I cannot give a full 
account of their arguments on both sides ; only this 
I remember, that they cavilled very much with one 
another : some were for Fires, but that they must be 
made of wood, and not coaL and of particular sorts 
of wood too, such as fir in pa.rticular, or cedar,, 
because of the strong efiiuvia of turpentine : others 
were for coal and not wood, because of the sulphur 
and bitumen : and others were for neither one nor 
other.* Upon the whole, the Lord Mayor ordered 

(once in so many years/; in order to Reppa'ation;."' la the same 
paper, No. 79, September 27:11, i: is said, — " Tne Roval Exchange 
is now opened a^:.in, ^-liich we think convenien: to notify, the 
repairs being finished.''' 

* For the Lord Mayor's Proclamation, ordering the Fires, see 
Appendix, No. IV. — There cannot be a doubt but that the Pesti- 
lence derived strength from this ill-advised mode of attempting its 
suppression. The following passage relating to the subject, occurs 
in Dr. Hodges's Loimologia." pp. 24, 25 : — 

In the beginning of September, such was the violence of the 
disease, that more than twelve thousand were carried off weekly. 
At length the presiding Magistrates, (the Court having removed to 
Oxford,) in this temble time, that nothing might be left untried, 
urged by the estreme peril, determined on lighting Fires in all the 
streets, for three days together. When this was in agitation, we. 
the Physicians, opposed it with all our authority ; alleging that the 
air itself remained uninfected, and that the scheme therefore would 
be alike useless and expensive. But the Magistrates, over anxious 
for the health of the City, and preferring the authority and 
example of our celebrated Hippocrates, notwithstanding our expos= 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



231 



ill no more Fires, and especially on this account;, namely, 
ii tliat the Plague was so fierce, that they saw evidently 
it defied all means, and rather seemed to increase 
than decrease, upon any application to check and 
abate it ; and yet this amazement of the Magistrates 
proceeded rather from want of being able to apply 
any means successfully, than from any un^^ilhngness, 
either to expose themselves, or undertake the care 
and weight of business ; for, to do them justice, they 
neither spared their pains nor their persons ; — but 
nothing answered ; the Infection raged, and the 
people were now frighted and terrified to the last 
degree, so that, as I may say, they gave themselves 
up, and, as I mentioned above, abandoned themselves 
to their despair.* 

But let me observe here, that when I say the 
people abandoned themselves to despair, I do not 



tulations, caused Fires everywliere to he lighted. Alas ! the dispute 
that bad arisen was superseded by the event : the three days had 
scarcely elapsed, when the mourning Heavens, as if ^veepiDg for the 
innumerable funerals, or rather bewailicg the noxious errors that 
had been committed, extinguished the flames by profuse showers. 
I leave it to others to decide whether these Fires were to be 
regarded as ominous preludes of the future conflagration, or of the 
buruiDg funeral piles ; but whether through the suffocative effluvia 
of the coals, or of the dampness of the rainy atmosphere immediately 
following, that night brought unheard-of destruction : for truly more 
than four thousand perished before the morning. Henceforth may 
those in authority act more cautiously, and from our misfortune 
Posterity take warning ; and not attempt cures after the manner of 
Quacks by following mistaken analogies." 

* Under the date of September 6ih, Pepys says : — ** To London, 
and there I saw Fires burning in the streets, through the whole 
City, by the Lord Mayor's order. Thence by water to the Duke 
of Albemarle's (at Whitehall) : all the way Fires on each side of 
the Thames : and strange to see in broad daylight, two or three 
burials upon the Bankeside, one at the very heels of another j 
doubtless all of the Plague ; and yet at least forty or fifty people 
goirg along with every one of them." — Diary, vol. ii. 



232 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

mean to what men call a religions Despair, or a 
despair of their Eternal state, bnt I mean a despair 
of their being able to escape the Infection, or to 
outlive the Plague, which they saw was so raging 
and so irresistible in its force, that indeed' few people 
that were touched with it in its height, about August 
and September, escaped ; and, which is very parti- 
cular, contrary to its ordinary operation in June and 
July, and the beginning of August, when, as I have 
observed, many were infected, and continued so many 
days, and then went ofp, after having had the poison 
in their blood a long time ; but now, on the contrary, 
most of the people who were taken during the last 
two weeks in August and in the first three weeks in 
September, generally died in two or three days at 
farthest, and many the very same day they were 
taken. Whether the Dog-days, or as our Astrologers 
pretended to express themselves the influence of the 
Dog-star, had that malignant effect; or that all those 
who had the seeds of Infection before in them, 
brought it up to a maturity at that time altogether, I 
know not; but this was the time when it was re- 
ported, that above 3000 people died in one night,* 
and they that would have us believe they more criti- 
cally observed it, pretend to say, that they all died 
within the space of two hours, viz. between the hours 
of one and three in the morning. 

As to the suddenness of people's dying at this 
time, more than before, there were innumerable in- 
stances of it, and I could name several in my neigh- 
bo arhood : one family without the Bars, and not far 
from me, were all seemingly well on the Monday, 
being ten in family ; that evening one maid and one 
apprentice were taken ill, and died the next morning, 



* See before, p. 231, note. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



233 



when the other apprentice and two children were 
touched, whereof one died the same evening, and the 
other two on Wednesday. In a word, by Saturday 
' at noon, the master, mistress, four children, and four 
^ servants, were all gone, and the house left entirely 
' empty, except an ancient woman, who came in to 
take charge of the goods for the master of the family's 
brother, who lived not far off, and who had not been 
sick. 

Many houses were then left desolate, all the 
people being carried away dead, and especially in an 
Alley farther on the same side, beyond the Bars, going 
. in at the sign of Moses and Aaron; there were several 
houses together, which (they said) had not one per- 
son left alive in them, and some that died last in seve- 
ral of those houses, were left a little too long before 
they were fetched out to be buried; the reason of which 
was, not, as some have written very untruly, that the 
living were not sufficient to bury the dead, but that 
the mortahty was so great in the Yard or Alley, that 
there was nobody left to give notice to the buriers or 
sextons, that there were any dead bodies there to be 
buried. It was said, how true I know not, that some 
of those bodies were so much corrupted, and so rotten, 
that it was with difficulty they were carried ; and as 
the carts could not come any nearer than to the 
Alley-gate in the High-street, it was so much the 
more difficult to bring them along; but I am not 
certain how many bodies were then left. I am sure 
that ordinarily it was not so. 

As I have mentioned how the people were brought 
into a condition to despair of Life, and abandon them- 
selves, so this very thing had a strange effect am.ong 
us for three or four weeks; that is, it made them bold 
and venturous, they were no more shy of one another, 
nor restrained within doors, but went anywhere and 



234 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



everywliere, and began to converse; one would say to 
another, — ^^1 do not ask you how you are, or say 
how I am; it is certain we shall all go, so 'tis no 
matter who is sick or who is sound;" and so they ran 
desperately into any place or any company. 

As it brought the people into public company so 
it was surprising how it brought them to crowd into 
the Churches ; they inquired no more into who they 
sat near to, or far from, what offensive smells they 
met with, or what condition the people seemed to be 
in, but looking upon themselves all as so many dead 
Corpses, they came to the churches without the least 
caution, and crowded together as if their lives were of 
no consequence, compared to the work which they 
came about there. Indeed, the zeal which they shewed 
in coming, and the earnestness and affection they 
shewed in their attention to what they heard, made 
it manifest what a value people would all put upon 
the Worship of God, if they thought, every day they 
attended at the church, that that day would be their 
last ! 

Nor was it v>ithout other strange effects, for it 
took away all manner of prejudice at, or scruple 
about the Person whom they found in the pulpit 
when they came to the churches. It cannot be 
doubted, but that many of the Ministers of the 
parish churches were cut off among others, in so 
common and dreadful a calamity; and others had not 
courage enough to stand it, but removed into the 
country as they found means for escape : as then 
some parish churches were quite vacant and forsaken, 
the people made no scruple of desiring such Dis- 
senters as had been a few years before deprived of 
their livings, by virtue of the Act of Parhament 
called the Act of Uniformity, to preach in the 
churches : nor did the church Ministers in that case 



j MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 236 

!; make any difficulty of accepting their assistance ; so 
ij that many of those whom they called silenced minis- 
{i ters^ had their mouths opened on this occasion^ and 
' preached publicly to the people. 

Here we may observe, and I hope it will not be 
f amiss to take notice of it, that a near view of Death 
would soon reconcile Men of good Principles one to 
another ; and that it is chiefly owing to our easy situ- 
ation in life, and our putting these things far from us, 
■ that our breaches are fomented, ill blood continued, 
I prejudices, and breach of charity and of christian 
union so kept, so far carried on among us as it is. 
Another Plague year would reconcile all these differ- 
ences; a close conversing with Death, or with Dis- 
; eases that threaten Death, would scum off the gall 
from our tempers, remove the animosities among us, 
and bring us to see with differing eyes, than those 
which we look on things with before. As the people 
who had been used to join with the Church, were re- 
conciled at this time with the admitting the Dissenters 
to preach to them; so the Dissenters, who, with an 
uncommon prejudice, had broken off from the Com- 
j munion of the Church of England, were now content 
1 to come to the parish churches, and to conform to the 
Worship which they did not approve of before ; but 
as the terror of the Infection abated, those things all 
returned again to their less desirable channel, and to 
the course they were in before.* 

* The Act of Uniformity was only one of the several measures 
contrived or promoted by the Episcopalians to effect the complete 
restoration of the Church establishment as settled in the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth. They were opposed by sectaries of various 
' classes, among wbom the Presbyterians were the most formidable, 
and probably the most numerous ; and against them especially was 
I this hostile statute directed, " Both the Presbyterians and the 
^, Cavaliers had given proofs of their attachment to the king ; but 
their loyalty was of a different order: the first sought to limit, the 



236 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I mention this but historically, I have no mind to 
enter into arguments to move either, or both sides, 
to a more charitable Compliance one with another ; I 
do not see that it is probable such a discourse would 

latter to extend, the powers of the crown ; the one looked on the 
constitution of the church as hostile, the other as favourable to 
their respective views. ""^ Hence a conflict between these two 
parties became almost unavoidable ; and the devoted royalists, (at 
the head of whom may be reckoned the Chancellor Hyde, after- 
wards Lord Clarendon,) perceived it to be their interest to crush, if 
possible, the Presbyterian faction ; and they therefore employed 
their whole weight and influence in aiding those who were deter- 
mined to make conformity to the episcopal church a part of the law 
of the land. 

Those bishops who were living at the time of the king's restora- 
tion were reinstated in their sees as a matter of course, and new 
bishops were appointed to the vacant dioceses. On the 30th of 
July, 1661, an act of Parliament received the royal assent to repeal 
the law made in the 17th of Charles I. for the exclusion of the 
bishops from the house of Peersc This must have greatly dimi- 
nished the parliamentary strength of the Presbyterians ; — wdiose 
power and interest throughout the country were still further weak- 
ened by the Corporation Act, passed on the 20th of December 
following, By that act, Commissioners were appointed with the 
power of removing at discretion every individual holding oflSce in 
or under any corporation, in the kingdom ; and it required that all 
persons permitted to retain their situations should qualify them- 
selves by renouncing the Solemn League and Covenant, by taking 
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and by declaring, upon oath, 
their belief of the unlawfulness of taking up arms against the king 
on any pretence whatsoever." With respect to the admission of 
future officers, the Act moreover provided, that no man should 
be eligible who had not, within the year preceding his election, 
" taken the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of 
England." 

The next step taken by the Cavaliers and High-Churchmen was 
to procure a law which should reduce the whole body of the clergy 
under the authority of the bishops. This w^as eff^ected by the Act 
of Uniformity ^ by which every minister was required, under the 
penalty of forfeiting all his ecclesiastical preferments, to conform 



Dr. Lingard's " History of England," vol. vii. p. 374, 4to. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



237 



be either suitable or successful ; the breaches seem 
rather to widen, and tend to a mdenirig farther, than 
to closing ; and who am I that I should think myself 
able to influence either one side or other ? But this 



to the ritual prescribed in the hook of Common Prayer, before 
August 24, 1662, which being the feast of St. Bartholomew, this 
statute was styled the Bartholomew Act. All ministers were 
likewise required to sign the following declaration : I do hereby 
declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything 
contained and prescribed in and by the Book intituled the Book of 
Common Prayer," &c. Besides this, every person was obliged 
to sign a declaration contained in the Militia Act, promising to 
conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England, and to renounce 
the Solemn League and Covenant, which had been imposed on 
all who held ecclesiastical or other oJBQces, during the ascendancy 
of the Presbyterians. Among the provisions of this Act, it was 
stated, that no person shall be capable of any benefice, or pre- 
sume to consecrate or administer the holy Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, before he be ordained Priest by Episcopal Ordination, 
upon pain to forfeit for every offence the sum of one hundred 
pounds." 

The patrons of this measure, anxious chiefly to deprive the Pres- 
byterian clergy of their influence over the people, made no scruple 
however of sacrificing, in the general proscription, all who presumed 
to dissent from the Church of England, whether Catholics or Pro- 
testants. The King would willingly have favoured the Catholics ; 
and as he could not directly procure for them an exemption from 
the penalties of such provisions of the act as affected them, he en- 
deavoured to secure to himself the means of relieving them, by 
retaining a discretionary power of dispensing with the execution of 
the law in particular cases. In this attempt for the present he 
was unsuccessful. It was on the 18th of February that the Act 
received the royal signature ; and in the period that intervened 
before St. Bartholomew's day, the leaders of the Presbyterian 
party made every effort to prevent the rigid enforcement of the law. 
Having free access to his Majesty, they complained that he had 
violated his promise made to them in the declaration from Breda, 
in which he had said " that no man should be disquieted or called 
in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion, which 
did not disturb the peace of the kingdom and that he would 
" consent to such an act of Parliament, as upon mature deliberation 
should be offered to him for the granting full indulgence to tender 
consciences." The remonstrances of the Presbyterians and their 



238 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I may repeat again, that it is evident Death will re- 
concile us all ; ' on the other side the grave we shall 
be all brethren again. In heaven, whither I hope we 
may come from all parties and persuasions, we shall 

friends, according to Clarendon, had so much influence on the King, ] 
that he was induced to promise that he would issue a proclamationj 
or give orders to the Bishops to suspend the full operation of the 
act for three months heyond the time appointed ; so that those 
ministers who conformed so far as merely to read the Liturgy might 
not be subjected to the forfeiture of their benefices. But on con- 
sultation with the heads of the church and the great law officers, he 
found himself compelled to submit to their representations, and the 
law was suffered to take its course. 

*' The fatal St. Bartholomew,'' says Hume, "approached ; the 
day when the clergy were obliged by the late law, either to relinquish 
their livings, or to sign the articles required of them. A combina- 
tion had been entered into by the most zealous of the Presbyterian 
ecclesiastics to refuse the subscription, in hopes that the Bishops 
would not venture at once to expel so great a number of the most 
popular preachers. The Catholic party at Court, who desired a 
great rent among the Protestants, encouraged them in this obstinacy, 
and gave them hopes that the King would protect them in their 
refusal. The King himself, by his irresolute conduct, contributed, 
either from design or accident, to increase this opinion. Above all, 
the terms of subscription had been made strict and rigid, on purpose 
to disgust all the zealous and scrupulous among the Presbyterians, 
and deprive them of their livings; and iu consequence about two 
thousand of the clergy, in one day, relinquished their cures ; and to 
the astonishment of the court, sacrificed their interest to their reli- 
gious tenets." — " During the dominion of the Parliamentary party, 
a fifth of each living had been left to the ejected clergymen ; but 
this indulgence, though at first insisted on by the House of Peers, 
was now refused to the Presbyterians. However difficult to conci- 
liate peace among theologians, it was hoped by many, that some 
relaxation in the terms of communion might have kept the Presby- 
terians united to the church, and have cured those ecclesiastical 
factions which had been so fatal, and were still so dangerous. — 
Bishoprics were offered to Calamy, Baxter, and Reynolds, leaders 
among the Presbyterians : the last only could be prevailed on 
to accept. Deaneries and other preferments were refused by 
many."* 



* ''Hist, of England," vol. vii., pp. 384, 385. 8vo. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



239 



find neither prejudice nor scruple ; there we shall be 
of one Principle and of one Opinion. Vfhj we cannot 
be content to go hand in hand to the place where we 
shall join heart and hand \^ithout the least hesitation, 

- and with the most complete harmony and affection — 
I say, why we cannot do so here — I can say nothing 

( to ; neither shall I say anything more of it^ but that 
it remains to be lamented. 

I could dwell a great while upon the calamities of 
this dreadful time, and go on to describe the objects 
that appeared among us every day, the dreadful 
extravagances which the distraction of sick people 
drove them into ; how the streets began now to be 
fuller of frightful objects, and famihes to be made even 
a terror to themselves. But after I have told you, as 

The conduct of the churchmen in this affair may be partly 
excused on the score of retaliation, for the sufferings Trhich they 

I had themselves endured during the Protectorate ; but the behaviour 
of the Courtiers admits of no such apology. A recent historian 
severely remarks, that the Act of Uniformity may have been 
necessary for the restoration of the church to its former discipline 
and doctrine ; but if such was the intention of those who formed 
the declaration from Breda, they were guilty of infidelity to the 
King; and of fraud to the people, by putting into his mouth lan- 

' giiage, which, with the aid of equivocation, they might explain away ; 

I and by raising in them expectations which it was never meant to 

i It might have been expected that the Episcopalians, having 
recovered their benefices and completely restored the ecclesiastical 
establishment, would have been satisfied with the success of their 
projects ; but, animated by the spirit of proselytism, if not by yet 
more worthy motives, they continued throughout the reign of 
Charles II. to harass their fallen enemies with a seiies of penal 
enactments, which, though somewhat modified by the policy of the 
courtiers, in order to gratify the King's predilection for the Catho- 
lics, had the inevitable effect of such measures, in confirming and 
perpetuating those sectarian principles which they were ostensibly 
intended to eradicate. 



^ Lingard'3 Hist, of England," vol. vii. p. 378. 

i 



240 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I have above, tliat one man being tied in liis bed, and 
finding no other way to deliver himself, set the bed 
on fire with his candle, which unhappily stood mthin 
his reach, and burnt himself in his bed; and how 
another, by the insufferable torment he bore, danced 
and sung naked in the streets, not knowing one 
ecstasy from another ; I say, after I have mentioned 
these things, what can be added more ? ^^Tiat can 
be said to represent the misery of these times, more 
lively to the reader, or to give him a more perfect 
idea of a complicated distress ? 

I must acknowledge that this time was terrible, 
that I was sometimes at the end of all my reso- 
lutions, and that I had not the courage that I had at 
the beginning. As the extremity brought other 
people abroad, it drove me home, and except having 
made my voyage do^vn to Blackwall and Greenwich, 
as I have related, which was an excursion, I kept 
afterwards very much within doors, as I had for about 
a fortnight before. I have said already, that I 
repented several times that I had ventured to stay in 
town, and had not gone away with my brother and 
his famih^, but it was too late for that now ; and after 
I had retreated, and stayed \^ithin doors a good while 
before my impatience led me abroad, then they called 
me, as I have said, to an ugly and dangerous ofiice, 
which brought me out again : but as that was 
expired, while the height of the distemper lasted, I 
retired again, and continued close ten or twelve da\ s 
more ; during which time many dismal spectacles 
represented themselves in my ^^iew, out of my own 
windows, and in our own street, as that particularly 
from Harrow-alley, of the poor outrageous creature 
which danced and sung in his agony, — and many 
others there were. Scarce a day or night passed 
over, but some dismal thing or other happened at 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



241 



|j the end of that Harrow-alley, which was a place 

' full of poor people, most of them belonging to the 
butchers, or to employments depending upon the 

i butchery. * 

Sometimes heaps and throngs of people would 

I burst out of the alley, most of them wom.en making a 

j dreadful clamour, mixed or compounded of screeches, 
cryings, and calling one another, that we could not 
conceiye what to make of it. Almost all the dead part 
of the night the Dead-cart stood at the end of that 
alley, for if it went in it could not v/ell turn again, 
and could go in but a little way. There, I say, it 
stood to receiye dead bodies, and as the Church-yard 
was but a little way oiT, if it went away full it would 
soon be back again. It is impossible to describe the 
most horrible cries and noise the poor people would 
make at their bringing the dead bodies of their 
children and friends out to the cart, and by the 
number one would haye thought there had been none 
left behind, or that there were people enough for a 
small city hying in those places. Seyeral times they 
cried Murder, sometimes Fire : but it was easy to 
perceiye it was all distraction, and the complaints of 

j distressed and distempered people. 

I I beheye it w^as eyeryr^here thus at that time, for 
the Plague raged six or seyen weeks beyond all that 
I haye expressed; and csme eyen to such a height, 
that in the extremity, they began to break into that 
excellent order, of which I haye spoken so much, in 
behalf of the Magistrates, namely, that no dead 
bodies were seen in the streets, or burials in the day- 

* la the " Intelligencer " of August the lltb, No. 63, is this 
passage : — "In the city, that is, in the close and filthy alleys and 
] corners about it, the plague is very much increased, but in the broad 
I and open streets there is but little appearance of it. The last Bill 
I reckons 2817 of the Plague, whereof 208 within the walls of the 
city.'^ 



242 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



time, for there was a necessity, in this extremity, to 
hear with its heing otherwise for a Httle while. 

One thing I cannot omit here, and indeed I 
thought it was extraordinary; at least, it seemed a 
remarkable hand of Divine Justice, viz. that all the 
predicters, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and what they 
called cunning men, conjurors, and the like; calcu- 
lators of nativities, and dreamers of dreams, and such 
people, were gone and vanished, not one of them was 
to be found. I am verily persuaded that a great 
number of them fell in the heat of the calamity, 
having ventured to stay upon the prospect of getting 
great estates ; and indeed their gain was but too great 
for a time, through the madness and folly of the 
people ; but now they were silent, many of them went 
to their long home, not able to foretell their own fate, 
nor to calculate their own nativities. Some have 
been critical enough to say, that every one of them 
died: I dare not affirm that; but this I must oym, 
that I never heard of one of them that ever appeared 
after the calamity was over. 

* Evelyn, under the date of September the 7th, writes thus : — 
*^ I went all along the City and Suburbs from Kent Street to St. 
James's, a dismal passage, and dangerous to see so many coffins ex- 
posed in the streets, now thin of people; the shops shut up, and all in 
mournful silence, as not knowing whose turn it might be next :— 
there perishing nearly 10,000 poor creatures weekly. I went to y^ 
Duke of Albemarle for a Pest-ship, to wait on our infected men, 
who were not a few." 

Mr. Evelyn was one of the Commissioners appointed for the care 
of the Sick and wounded Prisoners in the Dutch war ; and it was 
with the utmost difficulty that himself and his coadjutors could 
obtain sufficient supplies from the Government to keep the unfor- 
tunate beings committed to their charge from actual starvation. He 
concludes his ** Diary" for the year 1665, with the following 
expression of his thankfulness : — '* Now blessed be God for His 
extraordinary mercies and preservation of me this year, when thou- 
sands and ten thousands perlsh'd and were swept away, on each side 
of me." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



243 



But to return to my particular observations, during 
this dreadful part of the Visitation. 1 am now come, 
as I have said, to the month of September, which was 
the most dreadful of its kind, I believe, that London 
ever saw ; for by all the accounts which I have seen 
of the preceding Visitations which have been in 
London, nothing has been like it ; the number in the 
weekly Bills amounting to almost 40,000 from the 
2 2d of August to the 26th of September, being but 
five weeks. The particulars of the Bills were as 
follow, viz. : 

From August the 22nd to the 29th 7496 

To the 5th of September . . 8252 

To the 12th 7690 

To the 19th 8297 

To the 26th . . ... 6460 



38,195^ 



* The following very vivid but fearful description of the ravages 
of the Plague, in August and September, is given by the Rev. 
Thos. Vincent, in his curious tract (before quoted) intituled, 
" God's Terrible Voice in the City." Mr. Vincent, to use his own 
words, was here in the City, from the beginning to the end'' of 
the Pestilence, (sect. v. p. 28) and as he professedly drew up his 
I Narrative to keep the "Memory of the Judgment'' alive, both in 
himself and others, and was a witness of many of its most appalling 
occurrences, we may rely with confidence on the general fidelity of 
I his relations. After detailing the advancing cause and effects of 
the Plague from May to July, he proceeds thus:— -(vide Sect. v. pp. 
36 — 39.) "In August, how dreadfull is the increase? — Now the 
Cloud is very black, and the storm comes down upon us very sharp. 
Now Death rides triumphantly on his pale Horse through our streets, 
and breaks into every House almost where any inhabitants are to be 
found. " Now people fall as thick as the leaves in Autumn, when 
they are shaken by a mighty wind. Now there is a dismal solitude 
in London-streets ; every day looks with the face of a Sabbath-day, 
I observed with greater solemnity than it used to be in the City. 
I Now shops are shut in, people rare and very few that walk about, 
insomuch that the grass begins to spring up in some places, and a 
J deep silence almost in every place, especially within the walls. No 
R 2 



244 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Tliis was a prodigious number of itself, but if I 
should add the reasons which I have to beheve that 
this account was deficient, and how deficient it was. 
you would, with me, make no scruple to believe that 
there died above ten thousand a week for all those 
weeks, one week with another, and a proportion for 
several weeks both before and after. The confusion 
among the people, especiahy within the City, at that 
time, was inexpressible : the terror was so great at 

prancing Horses, no rattling Coaches, lo caiJijg ::i Customers, nor 
offeriog AVares : no London Cries soundirig in the ears. If any 
Voice be heard, it is the groans of dvirg persons, breathing forth 
their last, and the funeral knells of them that are readv to be carried 
to their graves. Xo-v shutting up of visited Houses (there being so 
many; is at an end, and most of the Well are miDgled among the 
Sick, ^'hich otherwise would have got no help. Xow in some 
places, where the people did generally stay, not cne House in an 
bitDdred but what is infected; and in caany houses half the family 
is swept away; in some the whole, from the eldest to the youngest: 
few escape but with the death of one or two. Xever did so many 
Husbands and Wives die together : never d:d so many Parents carry 
their Children with them to the grave, and go together into the same 
house under earth, who had lived together in the same house upon 
it. Now the Nights arc too short i': hury the D.ad : the whole day, 
though at so great a length, is hardly suiScient to light the Dead 
that fall thereon into their gi^aves. We could hardly go forth, but 
we should meet many coiSns, and see many with sores, and limping 
in the streets." 

Speaking of the month of September, l\Ir. Vincent says : — Of 
the ]30 Parishes in and about the City, there were but four Parishes 
which were not infected; and in those, few people remaining thatweie 
not gone into the Country. — 

" Xow the Grave doth open its mouth without measure. Multi- 
tudes 1 multitudes in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, t: rorgirg 
daily into Eternity. The Churcb-yards now are s^uu^^: so fu l w;-.h 
Dead corpses, that they are in many places swelled two or three feet 
higher than they were before; and new ground is broken up to bury 
the dead." — He goes on to say : — ^' Now Hell from beneath is moved 
at the number of Guests that are received into its Chambers."" (?cc. — 
But, as this is the most exceptionable part of his work, and as his 
authority, as an eye'icitnesSy is no longer to be received, our extracts 
will here terminate. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



245 



f last, that the courage of the people appointed to 
carry away the dead, began to fail them; nay, several 
i; of them died, although they had had the Distemper 
I before, and were recovered ; and some of them 
I dropped down when they have been carrying the 
bodies, even at the pit-side, and just ready to throw" 
f them in. And this confusion was greater in the 
Cit}", because they had flattered themselves with 
hopes of escaping ; and thought the bitterness of 
death was past. One cart, they told us, going up 
Shoreditch, was forsaken of the drivers, or being left 
to one man to drive, he died in the street, and the 
horses going on, overthrew the cart, and left the 
bodies, some thrown out here, some there, in a dismal 
manner. Another cart was, it seems, found in the 
great Pit in Finsbury fields, the driver being dead, 
or having gone and abandoned it, and the horses 
running too near the Pit, the cart fell in and drew 
the horses in also. It was suggested that the driver 
was thrown in with it, and that the cart fell upon him, 
by reason his w^hip was seen to be in the Pit among 
the bodies; but that, I suppose, could not be certain. 
In our parish of Aldgate, the Dead-carts were 
j several times, as I have heard, found standing at the 
I -church-yard gate, full of dead bodies, but neither 
bellman nor driver, or any one else ^ith it. Neither 
in these, nor many other cases, did they know what 
bodies they had in their cart, for sometimes they 
were let down with ropes out of balconies and out of 
windows ; and sometimes the bearers brought them 
to the cart, sometimes other people; nor, as the men 
themselves said, did they trouble themselves to keep 
any account of the numbers. 

The \igilance of the Magistrates was now put to 
I the utmost trial, and it must be confessed, can never 
be enough acknowledged on this occasion also, 



246 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

namely, that whatever expense or trouble they were 
at, two things were never neglected in the City, or 
Suburbs either : — 

First. — Provisions were always to be had in full 
plenty, and the price not much raised, neither hardly 
worth speaking of. 

Second. — No dead bodies lay unburied or un- 
covered; and if one walked from one end of the city 
to another, no funeral, nor sign of it, was to be seen 
in the day-time, except a little, as I have said above, 
in the first three weeks in September. 

This last article perhaps will hardly be believed, 
when some accounts which others have published 
since that shall be seen, wherein they say that the 
Dead lay unburied, — which I am assured was utterly 
false. At least, if it had been anywhere so, it must 
have been in houses where the living were gone from 
the dead, ha^ig found means, as I have observed, 
to escape, and where no notice was given to the 
officers; all which amounts to nothing at all in the 
case in hand: for this I am positive in, having myself 
been employed a little in the direction of that part 
of the parish in which I lived, and where as great a 
desolation was made in proportion to the number of 
inhabitants as was anywhere; I say I am sure that 
no dead bodies remained unburied there: that is to 
say, none that the proper officers knew of; none for 
want of people to carry them ofP, and buriers to put 
them into the ground and cover them ; and this is 
sufficient to the argument ; for what might lie in 
houses and holes, as in Moses and Aaron Alley, is 
nothing; for it is most certain, they were buried as 
soon as they were found. As to the first article, 
namely, of provisions, the scarcity or dearness, though 
I have mentioned it before, and shall speak of it 
again; yet I must observe here — 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



247 



First. — The price of bread in particular was not 
inuch raised:* for in the beginning of the year, viz., 
in the first week in March, the penny wheaten loaf 
was ten ounces and a half ; and in the height of the 
Contagion, it was to be had at nine ounces and a 
half, and never dearer, no, not all that season : and 
about the beginning of November, it was sold ten 
ounces and a half again; the like of which, I believe, 
was never heard of in any city under so dreadful a 
Visitation before. 

Secondly. — Neither was there (which I wondered 
much at) any want of bakers or ovens kept open to 
supply the people with bread ; but this was indeed 
alleged by some families, yiz., that their maid-servants 
going to the bake-houses with their dough to be 
baked, which was then the custom, sometimes came 
home with the sickness, that is to say, the Plague 
upon them. 

In all this dreadful Visitation, there were, as I 
have said before, but two Pest-houses made use of, 
viz., one in the fields beyond Old-street, and one in 
Westminster,^ neither was there any compulsion 



* There was very little variation in the price of bread during the 
whole year. At its commencement, the Penny Wheaten Loaf was 
ordered by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, to contain eleven 
ounces. For several weeks in January and February, eleven ounces 
and a half were sold for the Penny; but the weight was afterwards 
decreased to ten ounces and a half; ten ounces, and nine ounces and 
a half; which was the lowest weight during the summer and autumn. 
In the last six weeks of the year, the Penny Loaf contained ten ounces 
and a half. — " Assize of Bread." 

De Foe may be right, as to there having been only two prin- 
cipal Pest-houses, but there certainly were other temporary ones 
in different parts of London. Parton, a late vestry clerk of St. 
Giles's, says, in his "History" of that Parish, that a structure 
denominated the Pest-house" was erected therein during the great 
Plague of 1665 ; and that "it was afterwards pulled down, and the 
materials sold.'' From the small sum it produced, he supposes it 



248 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGVE, 

used in carn-ing people thither. Indeed there was 
no need of compulsion in the case, for there were 
thousands of poor distressed people, who having no 
help^ or couTeniences, or supplies but of charitv. 
would have been very glad to have been carried 
thither, and been taken care of, which indeed was the 
only thing that. I think, was wanting in the whole 
public management of the City ; seeing nobody was 
here allowed to be brought to the Pest-house^ but 
where money was given, or security for money^ either 
at their introducing, or upon theu' being cured and 
sent out ; — for very many were sent out again 
whole^ and very good Physicians were appointed to 
those places, so that many people did very well 
there, of which I shall make mention again. The 
principal sort of people sent thither were, as I have 
said, servants, who got the distemper by going of 
errands to fetch necessaries for the famihes where 
they lived ; and who in that case, if they came home 
sick, were removed to preserve the rest of the house, 
and they were so well looked after there, in ?dl the 
time of the Visitation, that there were but 159 

to have been of timber. lu bis account of disbursements, one item 
is as follows : — 

"Paid for oates and beanes for the Horse at the 

Pest-bonse . . . . . .£7 9 6." 

The Plorse here mentioned, says r>Ir. Parton (p. 26G),was proba- 
bly used to draw the parish Dodd-cart. During rhe prevalence of 
the Infection, COO/ was raised by assessment in S:. Giles's, besides 
voluntary coutiibations ; viz. 

" From the Earl of Clare . . . .£10 
„ the Lord Treasurer . . . , 50 

„ Earl Craven 40 

„ the rest of the Justices, (Sec. 6:c. . . 449 16 11" 
It appears from another entry, that St. Giles's Parish was con- 
sidered to be entirely free from the Plague in July 1666. ]\Ir. 
Parton mentions the report, that the Infection ''came with cotton 
imported from Turkey." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



249 



i buried in all at tlie Lonclou Pest-house, and 156 at 
that of Westminster. 

Br having more Pest-houses, I am far from mean- 
ing a forcing all people into such places. Had the 
shutting up of Houses been omitted, and the sick 
hurried out of their dwellings to Pest-houses as some 
proposed, it seems, at that time, as well as since, it 
would certainly have been much worse than it was ; 
the Tcry removing the sick would have been a spread- 
ing of the Infection, and the rather because that 
removing could not effectually clear the house where 
the sick person was, of the Distemper ; and the rest 
of the family being then left at liberty, would 
certainly spread it among others. 

The methods also in private famihes, which would 
have been universally used to have concealed the 
Distemper, and to have concealed the persons being 
sick, would have been such, that the Distemper would 
sometimes have seized a whole family before any 
Visitors, or Examiners, could have known of it : on 
the other hand, the prodigious numbers which would 
have been sick at a time, would have exceeded all the 
capacity of pubhc Pest-houses to receive them, or of 
pubhc officers to discover and remove them. 

This was well considered in those days, and I have 
heard them talk of it often. The ^lagistrates had 
enough to do to bring people to submit to having 
their houses shut up, and many ways they deceived 
the watchmen, and got out, as I have observed; but 
that difficulty made it apparent that they would have 
found it impracticable to have gone the other way 
to work ; for they could never have forced the sick 
people out of their beds and out of their dwellings ; 
it must not have been my Lord Mayor's officers, but 
an army of officers, that must have attempted it ; 
and the people, on the other hand, would have been 



250 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



enraged and desperate, and would have killed those 
that should have offered to have meddled with them, 
or with their children and relations, whatever had 
befallen them for it ; so that they would have made 
the people, who, as it was, were in the most terrible 
distraction imaginable ; I say, they would have made 
them stark mad ; whereas the Magistrates found it 
proper on several accounts to treat them with lenity 
and compassion, and not with violence and terror, 
such as dragging the sick out of their houses, or 
obliging them . to remove themselves, would have 
been. 

This leads me again to mention the time when the 
Plague first began, that is to say, w^hen it became 
certain that it would spread over the whole town, 
when, as I have said, the better sort of people first 
took the alarm, and began to hurry themselves out of 
town. It was true, as I observed in its place, that 
the throng was so great, and the coaches, horses, 
waggons and carts were so many, driving and drag- 
ging the people away, that it looked as if all the City 
w^as running away ; and had any regulations been 
published that had been terrifying at that time, 
especially such as would pretend to dispose of the 
people, otherwise than they would dispose of them- 
selves, it would have put both the City and suburbs 
into the utmost confusion. 

But the Magistrates wisely caused the people to 
be encouraged, made very good by-laws for the regu- 
lating the citizens, keeping good order in the streets, 
and making everything as eligible as possible to all 
sorts of people. 

In the first place, the Lord Mayor and the sheriffs, 
the Court of Aldermen, and a certain number of the 
Common-council men, or their deputies, came to a 
resolution and published it; viz., — That they would 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 251 

I 

; not quit the City tliemselves, but that they would be 
always at hand for the preserving good order in every 
place, and for the doing justice on all occasions; as 
also for the distributing the public charity to the 
poor ; and, in a word, for the doing the duty, and 
discharging the trust reposed in them by the citizens, 

I to the utmost of their power."* 

1 In pursuance of these orders, the Lord Mayor, 
Sheriffs, &c., held Councils every day more or less, 
for making such dispositions as they found needful 
for preserving the ci^dl peace; and though they used 
the people with all possible gentleness and clemency, 
yet all manner of presumptuous rogues, such as 
thieves, house-breakers, plunderers of the dead, or of 
the sick, were duly punished, and several declarations 
were continually published by the Lord Mayor and 

J, Court of Aldermen against such. 

|l Also all Constables and Churchwardens were 
enjoined to stay in the City upon severe penalties, or 
to depute such able and sufficient house-keepers, as 
the deputy aldermen, or common-councilmen of the 
precinct, should approve, and for whom they should 
give security; and also security in case of mortahty, 

* The following advertisement was published in the ** Intelli- 

' gencer" of August the 7th, No. 64 : — 

" Whereas since the appointment of two Physicians to administer 
to the Infected in and about the City, — the Plague is so increased 
that it is requisite there should be a greater number to take care of 
the sick, — be it known that Dr. Nicholas Davis, a member of the 
King's College of Physicians, living in Austin Friars, and Dr. Edw. 
D'Awtry, a member of the same society, living in Broad-street, being 
two of those Physicians that were presented by the College to the 
Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of the City of London, for 
prevention and cure of the Plague, have thought fit, upon principles 

( of honour and conscience, to declare that they are ready and willing 

I to attend the said service, and to visit all such persons in and about 
this City and countries adjacent, as shall desire their assistance and 

^' directions.'' 



252 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



that tliey would forthwith constitute other constables 
in their stead. 

These things re-established the minds of the people 
very much, especially in the first of their fright, 
when they talked of making so unirersal a flight, " 
that the City would have been in danger of being 
entirely deserted of its inhabitants, except the poor ; 
and the country of being plundered and laid waste 
by the multitude. Nor were the Magistrates de- 
ficient in performing their part as boldly as they 
promised it : for my Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs 
w^ere continually in the streets, and at places of the 
greatest danger, and though they did not care for 
having too great a resort of people crowding about 
them, yet in emergejat cases, they never denied the 
people access to them, and heard with patience all 
their grievances and complaints. My Lord Mayor 
had a low gallery built on purpose m his hall, where 
he stood a little removed from the crowd when any 
complaint came to be heard, that he might appear 
with, as much safety as possible. 

Likewise the proper ofiicers, called my Lord 
Mayor's officers, constantly attended in their turns, 
as they were in ivaiting ; and if any of them were 
sick or infected, as some of them were, others were 
instantly employed to fill up and officiate in their 
places, till it was known whether the other should 
live or die. 

In like manner the Sheriffs and Aldermen did in 
their several stations and wards, where they were 
placed by office; and the sheriffs' officers or sergeants 
were appointed to receive orders from the respective 
Aldermen in their turn; so that justice was executed 
in all cases mthout interruption. In the next place, 
it was one of their particular cares to see the Orders 
for the freedom of the markets observed; and in this 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 



253 



part either the Lord Mayor^ or one or both of the 
Sheriffs, ^ere every market-dav on horseback to see 
their orders executed, and to see that the coiintry 
people had all possible encouragement and freedom 
in their coming to the markets, and going back 
again ; and that no nuisances nor frightful objects 
should be seen in the streets to terrify them, or 
make them unwilling to come. Also the Bakers 
were taken under particular order, and the Master 
of the Bakers' Company was, with his court of 
assistants, directed to see the order of my Lord 
Mayor for their regulation put in execution, and the 
due assize of bread, which was weekly appointed by 
my Lord Mayor, obseiwed ; and all the bakers were 
obhged to keep then- ovens going constantly, on pain 
of losing the privileges of a freeman of the City of 
London. 

By this means, bread was always to be had 
in plenty, and as cheap as usual, as I said above ; 
and provisions were never wanting in the markets, 
even to such a degree, that I often wondered at it, 
and reproached myself with being so timorous and 
cautious in stirring abroad, when the country people 
came freely and boldly to market, as if there had 
been no manner of Infection in the city, or danger of 
catching it. 

It was, indeed, one admirable piece of conduct in 
the said Magistrates, that the streets were kept 
constantly clear, and free from all manner of frightful 
objects, dead bodies, or any such things as were inde- 
cent or unpleasant, unless where anybody fell dovrn 
suddenly or died in the streets, as I have said above; 
and these were generally covered with some cloth or 
blanket, or removed into the next church-yard, till 
night. All the needful works that carried terror 
with them, that were both dismal and dangerous, 



254 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



were done in the night ; if any diseased bodies were 
removed^ or dead bodies buried^ or infected clothes 
burntj it was done in the night; and all the bodies 
which were thrown into the great Pits in the several 
church-yards or burying-grounds, as has been ob- 
served, were so removed in the night ; and every- 
thing was covered and closed before day. So that 
in the day-time there was not the least signal of the 
calamity to be seen or heard of, except what was to 
be observed from the emptiness of the streets, and 
sometimes from the passionate outcries and lamenta- 
tions of the people out at their windows, and from 
the numbers of houses and shops shut up. 

Nor was the silence and emptiness of the streets 
so much in the City as in the out-parts, except just 
at one particular time, when, as I have mentioned, 
the Plague came east, and spread over all the City."^ 
It was indeed a merciful disposition of God, that as 
the Plague began at one end of the town first, as has 
been observed at large, so it proceeded progressively 

* The Newes/' No. 54, contains a royal Proclamation, dated 
London, July 12, 1665, commanding that a general Fast should be 
kept on account of the " Heavy Judgment of Plague and Pesti- 
lence.'* This solemnity was ordered to be observed in London 
and the parts adjacent, on the said 12th of July ; and in all other 
parts of the realm, on the 2nd of August following. A form of 
prayer was prepared and published by the Bishops ; and charitable 
collections were made in the churches and chapels. — In the same 
paper, No. 56 (July the 19th), is this passage:—*' Their Majesties 
with the Court are (God be praised) in good health, and still at 
Hampton Court: but the Plague is much increased in the out- 
skirts of this City ; where effectually the misery of a close and 
smothering confinement contributes not a little to the fatality of 
the disease. The last week's Bill of the Plague amounted to 1089, 
of which number, 867 dyed in ten of the Out-parishes ; and even 
of them it may be fairly calculated, that poverty and sluttishness 
have destroyed the one-half. Within the walls of the City there 
dyed only 56 ; and very few of those but in close and blind 
alleyes." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



255 



] to other parts, and did not come on this way, or 
eastward, till it had spent its fury in the west part of 
,1 the town ; and so as it came on one way, it abated 
j; another: for example: — 

: It began at St. Giles's and the Westminster end 
j of the tovm, and it was in its height in all that 
I part by about the middle of July, viz., in St. Giles's 
in the Fields, St. Andrew's Holborn, St. Clement's 
Danes, St. Martin's in the Fields, and in West- 
minster. The latter end of July, it decreased in 
those parishes, and coming east, it increased prodi- 
giously in Crippiegate, St. Sepulchre's, St. James's, 
Clerkenwell, and St. Bride's and Alder sgate : while 
; it was in all these parishes, the City and all the 
parishes of the Southwark side of the water, and all 
Stepney, White-chapel, Aldgate, Wapping, and Rat- 
chff, were very little touched ; so that people went 
, about their business unconcerned, carried on their 
trades, kept open their shops, and conversed freely 
with one another in all the City, the east and north- 
east Suburbs, and in Southwark, almost as if the 
Plague had not been among us. 

Even when the north and north-west Suburbs 
h were fully infected, viz. Crippiegate, Clerkenwell, 
I Bishopsgate, and Shoreditch, yet still all the rest 
I were tolerably well : for example : — 

From the 25th of July, to the 1st of August, the Bill stood 
thus of all diseases ; — 

St. Giles's, Crippiegate . 554 Stepney parish . .127 
St. Sepulchre's . . 250 Aldgate . . . . 92 
Clerkenwell . . .103 Whitechapel . .104 
Bishopsgate . . . 116 All the 97 Parishes"! nno 



Shoreditch 



1133 



110 



within the waUs 
All the Parishes 
Southwark 




756 



256 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



So that, in sliort, there died more that week, m 
the two parishes of Cripplegate and St. Sepulchre, 
hy forty-eight, than in ah the City, all the east 
Suhurbs, and all the South wark parishes, put together. 
This caused the reputation of the City's health to 
continue all over England, and especially in the 
counties and markets adjacent, from whence our 
supply of provisions chiefly came, even much longer 
than that health itself continued; for when the people 
came into the streets from the country, by Shoreditch 
and Bishop sgate, or by Old-street, and Smithfield, 
they would see the out-streets empty, and the houses 
and shops shut, and the few people that were stirring 
there walk in the middle of the streets ; but when 
they came within the City, there things looked 
better, and the markets and shops were open, and the 
people walking about the streets as usual, though not 
quite so many; and this continued till the latter end 
of August and the beginning of September. 

But then the case altered quite, the Distemper 
abated in the west and north-west parishes, and the 
weight of the Infection lay on the City and the 
eastern Suburbs, and the South wark side, and this in 
a frightful manner.* 

* Pepys, under the date of August the 12th, has this enti y : — 
** The people die so, that now it seeras they are fain to carry the 
Dead to be buried by day-light, the nights not suffering to do it 
in. And the Lord Mayor commands people to be within at nine 
at night ; all, as they say, that the sick may have liberty to go 
abroad for air." A few days after he remarks, that tlie *^ streets 
were empty of people," and that two shops in three, if not more, 
were shut up. 

In the " Newes" of August the 29th (No. 71), it is said: *'The 
late increase of the sickness, in and about this town, besides that 
the Judgment is in itself just and dreadful, has been undoubtedly 
promoted by the incorrigible license of tlie multitudes that resort to 
public funerals, contrary both to order and reason ; and it is here 
humbly presented as a suggestion to those that have authority and 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 25/ 

Then^ indeed^ the City began to look dismal, shops 
to be shut, and the streets desolate ; in the high street 
indeed, necessity made people stir abroad on m^any 
occasions ; and there would be in the middle of the 
day a pretty many people, but in the mornings and 
evenings scarce any to be seen, even there, no not in 
Cornhill and Cheap side. 

These observations of mine were abundantly con- 
firmed by the weekly Bills of Mortality for those 
weeks, an abstract of which, as they respect the 
parishes which I have mentioned, and as they make 
the calculations I speak of very evident, take as follows : 

The weekly Bill which makes out this decrease of 
the burials in the west and north side of the City, 
stands thus: — 

From the 12th of September to the 19th : 



St. Giles's, Cripplegate . . . .456 
St. Giles's in the Fields . . . . 140 

Clerkenwell 77 

St. Sepulclire's 214 

St. Leonard's, Shoreditch . . . 183 

1070 

Stepney Parish 716 

Aldgate 623 

White-chapel . . . . .532 
In the 97 parishes -^isdthin the walls . . 1493 
In the 8 parishes on South wark side . 1636 



5000 

Here is a strange change of things indeed, and a 
sad change it was, and had it held for two months 
more than it did, very few people would have been, 
left ahve : but then such, I say, was the merciful 

power to prevent it ; to which may be added the shallow burying 
of the dead in several places, where the bodies are piled even 
to the level of the ground ; and thereby poison the whole neigh- 
bourhood." 

S 



258 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



disposition of God^ that when it was thus, the west 
and north part^ which had been so dreadfully visited 
at firsts grew^ as you see, much better ; and as the : 
people disappeared here, they began to look abroad 1 
again there ; and the next week or two altered it still ! 
more, that is, more to the encouragement of the other i 
part of the town : for example : — 

From the 19th of September to the 26th : 



St. Giles's, Cripplegate . . . .277 
St Giles's in the Fields . . . . 119 
Clerkenwell . . . . . . 76 

St. Sepulchre's 193 

St. Leonard's^ Shoreditch . . . 146 

811 

Stepney Parish . . . . . . 616 

Aldgate 496 

White-chapel 346 

In the 97 parishes within the walls . 1268 
In the 8 parishes on Southwark side . . 1390 

' 4116 

From the 26th of September to the 3rd of October : 

St. Giles's, Cripplegate . . . .196 
St. Giles's m the Fields . . . . 95 

Clerkenwell 48 

St. Sepulchre's 137 

St. Leonard's, Shoreditch . . . 128 

604 

Stepney Parish 674 

Aldgate ..... . • 372 

White-chapel 328 

In the 97 parishes within the walls . 1149 
In the 8 parishes on Southwark side . . 1201 



3724 

And now the misery of the City, and of the said 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



259 



east and south parts, was complete indeed; for as you 
see the weight of the Distemper lay upon those parts, 
that is to say, on the City, the eight parishes over the 
River, and the parishes of Aldgate, White-chapel, and 
Stepney. And this was the time that the Bills came 
up to such a monstrous height, as that I mentioned 
before ; and that eight or nine, and as I believe, ten or 
twelve thousand a week died ; for it is my settled 
opinion, that they never could come at any just 
account of the numbers, for the reasons which I 
have given already. 

Nay, one of the most eminent Physicians, who has 
since published in Latin an account of those times, 
and of his observations, says, that in one week there 
died twelve thousand people, and that particularly 
there died four thousand in one night;* though I 
do not remember that there ever was any such par- 
ticular night, so remarkably fatal, as that such a 
number died in it. However, all this confirms what 
I have said above of the uncertainty of the Bills of 
Mortality, &c. of which I shall say more hereafter. 

And here let me take leave to enter again, though 
it may seem a repetition of circumstances, into a 
description of the miserable condition of the City 
itself, and of those parts where I lived at this par- 
ticular time. The City and those other parts, not- 
withstanding the great numbers of people that were 
gone into the country^ were vastly full of people, and 
perhaps the fuller, because people had for a long 
time a strong belief, that the Plague would not come 
into the City, nor into Southwark ; f no, nor into 



* De Foe is here referring to Dr. Hodges's " Loimologia," 
although with a little disingenuousness he affects slightly to question 
his correctness. The original passage is a remarkable one, as may 
he seen in a former note. Vide p. 230. 
' In a letter from Mr. Oidenburgh to the Honourable Robert 

s 2 

i 



260 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Wapping, nor Ratcliff at all ; nay such was the assur- 
ance of the people on that head^ that many removed 
from the suburbs on the west and north sides^ mto 
those eastern and south sides, as for safety^ and as 
I verily believe, carried the Plague amongst them 
there, perhaps sooner than they would otherwise 
have had it. 

Here also I ought to leave a farther remark for the 
use of posterity, concerning the manner of people's 
infecting one another; namely, that it was not the 
Sick people only from whom the Plague was imme- 
diately received by others that were sound, but the 
WELL. To explain myself : — by the Sick people, I 
mean those who were known to be sick, had taken 
their beds, had been under cure, or had swellings 
and tumours upon them, and the like ; these every 
body could beware of, they were either in their beds, 
or in such condition as could not be concealed. 

By the Well, I mean such as had received the Con- 
tagion, and had it really upon them, and in their 
blood, yet did not show the consequences of it in 
their countenances, nay, even were not sensible of it 
themselves, as many were not, for several days. 
These breathed Death in every place and upon 
every body who came near them ; nay, their very 
clothes retained the Infection, their hands would 
infect the things they touched, especially if they 
were warm and sweaty, and they were generally apt 
to sv/eat too. 

Now it was impossible to know these people, nor 
did they sometimes, as I have said, know themselves 

Boyle, dated July 4th, 1665, the writer says, — " It is a great 
mercy that Southwaik and Rotherhithe, where seamen are so 
numerous, and other people that relate to and work in the navy, 
remain so free yet of the Contagion, tliat there are not above two 
houses shut up in those quarters. — Boyle's Works,' ^ vol. vi. 
p. 187. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



261 



I to be infected : these were tlie people that so often 
dropped down and fainted in the streets ; for often- 
jj times they would go about the streets to the last^ till 
on a sudden they would sweat, grow faint, sit down 
' at a door, and die. It is true, finding themselves 
thus, they would struggle hard to get home to their 
f own doors, or at other times would be just able to 
go into their houses, and die instantly ; other times 
they would go about till they had the very tokens 
come out upon them, and yet not know it, and would 
die in an hour or two after they came home, but be 
well as long as they were abroad. These were the 
dangerous people : these were the people of whom 
the well people 'ought to have been afraid ; but then, 
on the other side, it was impossible to know them. 

And this is the reason why it is impossible in a 
Visitation to prevent the spreading of the Plague by 
j the utmost human vigilance, viz. that it is impossible 
. to know the infected people from the sound ; or that 
the infected people should perfectly know themselves. 
J I knew a man who conversed freely in London all 
the season of the Plague, in 1665, and kept about 
him an antidote or cordial, on purpose to take when 
{ he thought him^self in any danger, and he had such a 
rule to know, (or have warning of the danger by,) as 
indeed I never met with before nor since ; how far it 
may be depended on I know not. He had a wound 
in Ids leg, and whenever he cam^e among any people 
that were not sound, and the Infection began to affect 
him, he said he could know it by that signal, mz. 
that his wound in his leg would smart, and look pale 
I: and white ; so as soon as ever he felt it sm^art, it was 
I time for him to withdraw, or to take care of himself, 
I taking his drink, which he always carried about him 
I for that purpose. Now it seems he found his wound 
^ would smart many times, when he was in company 



262 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



witli such who thought themselves to be sounds and 
who appeared so to one another ; but he would pre- 
sently rise up, and say pubhcly, — Friends, here is 
somebody in the room that has the Plague and so 
would immediately break up the company.^ This 
was indeed a faithful monitor to all people, that the 
Plague is not to be avoided by those that converse 
promiscuously in a town infected : — people have it 
when they know it not, and they likewise give it to 
others when they know not that they have it them- 
selves. In this case, shutting up the Well, or re- 
moving the Sick, will not remove the danger, unless 
they can go back and shut up all those that the sick 
had conversed vnth, even before they knew themselves 
to be sick, and none knows how far to carry that back, 
or where to stop ; for none knows when, or where, or 
how, they may have received the Infection, or from 
whom. 

This I take to be the reason which makes so many 
people talk of the air being corrupted and infecteS, 
and that they need not be cautious of whom they 
converse with, for that the Contagion was in the air. 
I have seen them in strange agitations and surprises 
on this account. I have never come near any 
infected body !" says the disturbed person^ I have 
conversed with none but sound healthy people, and 
yet I have gotten the Distemper !" — I am sure 
I am struck from Heaven," says another, and he 
falls to the serious part. Again, the first goes on 

■'^ An incidental notice of the above kind, occurs in the Corre- 
spondence published in Boyle's " Works/' (vol. vi. p. 429 : edit. 
1772), where it is said on the authority of a person "known for 
many years to be creditable," that a good old woman, near eighty 
(now deceased), said often in his hearing, that she could know if 
the Plague were within thirty miles of her, by a pain she had in 
three Plague sores ; which sores she had in her younger days, 
before she was married." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 263 

|l exclaiming, I liave come near no Infection, nor any 
I infected person ; / am sure it is in the Air : we draw 
i in Death when we breathe, and therefore 'tis the 
Hand of God ; there is no withstanding it." And 
' this at last made many people, being hardened to the 
danger, grow less concerned at it, and less, cautious 
[l towards the latter end of the time, and when it was 
come to its height, than they were at first ; then, 
with a kind of a Turkish predestinarianism, they 
would say, If it pleased God to strike them, it was 
all one whether they went abroad or stayed at home, 
they could not escape it," and therefore they went 
boldly about eyen into infected houses, and infected 
company, visited sick people, and in short, lay in the 
beds with their wiyes or relations when they were 
infected ; and what was the consequence ? but the 
same that is the consequence in Turkey, and in those 
countries where they do those things : namely, that they 
were infected too, and died by hundreds and thousands. 

I would be far from lessening the awe of the Judg- 
ments of God, and the reyerence to his Proyidence, 
which .ought always to be on our minds on such 
i occasions as these. Doubtless, the Visitation itself 
I is a stroke from Heayen upon a city, or country, or 
j nation where it falls; a messenger of His yengeance, 
ij and a loud Call to that nation, or country, or city, to 
j| humiliation and repentance, according to that of the 
! prophet Jeremiah, x\iii. 7, 8 : ''At what instant I 
shall speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a 
Kingdom to pluck up, and to pull down, and destroy 
' it: if that Nation against whom I haye pronounced 
t turn from their Eyil, I will repent of the E^dl that 
, I thought to do unto them." — Now to prompt due 
impressions of the awe of God on the minds of men 
i on such occasions, and not to lessen them, it is that 
i ; I haye left these minutes upon record. 



264 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I say, therefore, I reflect upon no man for putting • 

the reason of those thhigs upon the immediate Hand i 

of God, and the appointment and direction of his g 

Providence ; nay, on the contrary, there were many i 

wonderful Dehverances of Persons from Infection, "ij 

and Dehverances of Persons when Infected, which i 

intimate singular and remarkable Providence, in the j 

particular instances to which they refer; and I esteem \ 

my own Deliverance to be one next to miraculous, !,j 

and do record it with thankfulness. ' 

But when I am speaking of the Plague, as a dis- 

temper arising from natural causes, we must consider ' 

it as it was really propagated by natural means, nor i 

is it at all the less a Judgment for its being under |) 
the conduct of human causes and effects ; for as the 

divine Power has formed the whole scheme of nature, ' 

and maintains nature in its course ; so the same ' 

Power thinks fit to let his own actings with men, [ 

whether of Mercy or Judgment, to go on in the I 

ordinary course of natural causes, and he is pleased i 

to act by those natural causes as the ordinary means ; j 

excepting and reserving to himself, nevertheless, a i. 

Power to act in a supernatural way when he sees i( 

occasion. Now, it is evident, that in the case of an i 

Infection, there is no apparent extraordinary occasion a 

for supernatural operation, but the ordinary course of i 

things appears sufficiently armed, and made capable f 

of ail the effects that Heaven usually directs by a 8 

Contagion. Among these causes and effects, this of i 
the sec7'et conveyance of Infection imperceptible, and 

unavoidable, is more than sufficient to execute the i 

fierceness of Divine vengeance, without putting it j: 

upon supernaturals and miracle. '\ 

The acute penetrating Nature of the Disease itself ^ 

was such, and the Infection was received so imper- [I 

ceptibly, that the most exact caution could not i 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



265 



secure us while in the place : but I must be allowed 
to belicTe, (and I hare so many examples fresh in 
my memory, to convince me of it, that I think none 
can resist their evidence,) / say, I must be allowed 
to believe, that no one in this whole nation ever 
received the Sickness or Infection, but who received 
it in the ordinary way of Infection from some body, 
or the clothes, or touch, or stench of some body, that 
was infected before. 

The manner of its coming first to London, proves 
this also, t'lz, by Goods brought over from Holland, 
and brought thither from the Levant ; the first 
breaking of it out in a house in Long-acre, where 
those Goods were carried, and first opened : its 
spreading from that house to other houses, by the 
visible unwary conversing with those who were sick, 
and the infecting the parish officers who were em- 
ployed about the persons dead, and the like : these 
are known authorities for this great foundation point, 
namely, that it icent on, and proceeded from person 
to person, and from house to house, and no otherwise. 
In the first house that was infected there died four 
persons; a neighbour hearing the mistress of the first 
house was sick, went to visit her, and went home 
and gave the Distemper to her family, and died, and 
all her household. A minister who called to pray 
with the first sick person in the second house, was 
said to sicken immediately, and die with several more 
in his house. Then the Physicians began to consider, 
for they did not at first di'eam of a general Contagion. 
But the Physicians being sent to inspect the bodies, 
they assured the people that it was neither more nor 
less than the Plague, with all its terrifying particu- 
lars, and that it threatened an universal Infection ; so 
many people having already conversed with the sick 
or distempered, and haviag, as might be supposed. 



266 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



received Infection from them, that it would be im- 
possible to put a stop to it. 

Here the opinion of the Physicians agreed with 
my observation afterwards, namely, that the danger 
was spreading msensibly : for the sick could inlect 
none but those that came within the reach of the sick 
person : but that one man. who may have really 
received the Infection, and knows it not, but goes 
abroad and about as a sound person, may give the 
Plague to a thousand people, and they to greater 
numbers in proportion, and neither the person giving 
the Infection, nor the persons receiving it, know any 
thing of it, and perhaps not feel the effects of it for 
several days after. 

For example: — Many persons in the time of this 
Visitation never perceived that they were infected 
till they found, to their unspeakable surprise, the 
Tokens come out upon them, after which they seldom 
lived six hoiu's ; for those spots they called the tokens 
were really gangrenous spots, or mortified fiesh, in 
small knobs as broad as a little sil^'er penny, and 
hard as a piece of callus or horn ; so that when the 
disease was come up to that length, there was nothing 
could follow but certain Death, and yet, as I said, 
they knew nothing of their being infected, nor found 
themselves so much as out of order, till those mortal 
marks were upon them : but every body must aUow 
that they were inlected in a high degree before, and 
must have been so some time; and consequently their 
breath, their sweat, their very clothes, were conta- 
gious for many days before. 

This occasioned a vast variety of cases, which 
Physicians would have much more opportunity to 
remember than I ; but some came within the com- 
pass of my observation, or hearing, of which I shall 
name a few. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



267 



A certain Citizen who had lived safe, and un- 
touched, till the month of September, when the 
weight of the Distemper lay more in the city than it 
had done before, was mighty cheerful, and something 
too bold, as I think it was, in his talk of how secure 
he was, how cautious he had been, and how he had 
never come near any sick body. Says another Citi- 
zen (a neighbour of his) to him, one day, Do not 

be too confident, Mr. , it is hard to say who is 

sick and who is well ; for we see men aliye and well, 
to outward appearance, one hour, and dead the 
next." — That is true," says the first man, for he 
was not a man presumptuously secure, but had 
escaped a long while ; and men, as I said above, 
especially in the City, began to be over easy upon 
that score. That is true," says be, ^' I do not 
think myself secure, but I hope I have not been in 
company with any person that there has been any 
danger in." — No !" says his neighbour, was not 
you at the Bull-head tavern, in Gracechurch-street, 

with Mr. , the night before last V'—'' Yes," 

says the first, I was, but there was nobody there 
that we had any reason to think dangerous." Upon 
i which his neighbour said no more, being unmlhng 
1 . to surprise him; but this made him more inquisitive, 
and as his neighbour appeared backward to reply, he 
was the more impatient, and in a kind of warmth, 
says he aloud, Why, he is not dead, is hef 
Upon which his neighbour still was silent, but cast 
up his eyes, and said something to himself ; at which 
the first Citizen turned pale, and said no more but 
this, Then I am a dead Man too,'' and went home 
immediately, and sent for a neighbouring apothecary 
I to give him something preventive, for he had not 
I yet found himself ill ; but the apothecary opening 
his breast, fetched a sigh, and said no more but 



268 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



this, Looh up to God;'' and the man died in a fev/ 
hours. 

Now let any man judge from a case hke this, if it 
he possible for the regulations of Magistrates, either 
by shutting up the sick, or removing them, to stop 
an Infection, which spreads itself from man to man, 
even while they are perfectly well [in appearance,] 
and insensible of its approach, and may be so for 
many days. 

It may be proper to ask here, how long it may be 
supposed men might have the seeds of the Contagion 
in them, before it discovered itself in this fatal 
manner ; and how long they might go about seem- 
ingly whole, and yet be contagious to all those that 
came near them ? I believe the most experienced 
Physicians cannot answer this question directly, any 
more than I can; and something an ordinary observer 
may take notice of, which may pass their observation. 
The opinion of Physicians abroad seems to be, that 
it may lie dormant in the spirits, or in the blood- 
vessels, a very considerable time ; why else do they 
exact a quarantine of those who come into their 
harbours and ports, from suspected places ? Forty 
days is, one would think, too long for nature to 
struggle with such an enemy as this, and not con- 
quer it, or yield to it ; but I could not think, by my 
own observation, that they can be infected so as 
to be contagious to others, above fifteen or sixteen 
days at farthest ; and on that score it was, that 
when a house was shut up in the City, where any 
one had died of the Plague, and nobody appeared to 
be ill in the family for sixteen or eighteen days after, 
they were not so strict, but that they would connive 
at their going privately abroad ; nor would people 
be much afraid of them afterwards, but rather think 
they were fortified the better, having not been 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



269 



vulnerable when the enemy was in their own house ; 
I yet we sometimes found it had lain much longer 
I concealed. 

I Upon the foot of all these observations, I must 
1 say, that though Providence seemed to direct my 
conduct to be otherwise ; yet, it is my opinion, and 
f I must leave it as a Prescription, viz, that the best 
y Physic against the Plague is to run away from it. I 
f know people encourage themselves by saying, " God 
! is able to keep us in the midst of danger, and able to 
overtake us when we think ourselves out of danger;" 
and this kept thousands in the town, whose carcases 
went into the great pits by cart-loads ; and who, if 
they had fled from the danger, had, I believe, been 
safe from the disaster ; at least, 'tis probable they had 
been safe. 

And were this very Fundamental only duly con- 
sidered by the people, on any future occasion of this 

Ij or the like nature, I am persuaded it would put them 
upon quite different measures for managing the 
people, from those that they took in 1665, or than 
any that have been taken abroad, that I have heard 
of; in a word, they would consider of separating the 
people into smaller bodies, and removing them in 
time farther from one another, and not let such a 

I Contagion as this, which is indeed chiefly dangerous 

' to collected bodies of people, find a million of people 
in a body together, as was very near the case before, 
and would certainly be the case, if it should ever 
appear again. 

The Plague is hke a great fire, which if a few 
houses only are contiguous where it happens, can 
only burn a few houses ; or if it begins in a single, 

' or, as we call it, a lone house, can only burn that 
lone house where it begins : but if it begins in a 
close-built town, or city, and gets a head, there its 



270 



me:moir5 of the plague. 



fuTY increases, it rages over the vrliole place, and 
consumes all it can reach. 

I could p: :" ir 
the GoTern; : t :v :: z 
under the r.; : 

SI-:. : T : : ^ Mt oi the 
them ; I ii:eau -i^cli 
ing poor. ai;d anM-iig 
of a siege, ^.re c^.dr :1 
then pruclenilv. and 
of. and the vrealtliy 
selves, and of their : 
and its adjacent pan 
ated, that td^ie -"-evld not be above a tenth part of 
its people Ic:: te^cdiier. for the disease to take hold 
upon. But sup]:'Ose them to be a n::h pa:":, an:l that 
t^o hundred and hftv thousand a end: - -i: iei'a and 
if it did seize upon thenn rhcv ^no_-, p." n_n: n~n^^ 
so much at large, be :n:"nn ' - - - epamd dciend 
themseh'es against the hnr':n:__ be hss hable to 
the effects of it, than if the sa.a.- nninlnr of people 
lived close t02:ether in one smaxhr citv. such as Dub- 
lin or Amsterdam, or the like. 

It is true, hundreds, yea, thousands of fnninrs lied 
away at this last Plague, but then c f :hcn:. nnnn" hed 
too late, and not only died in then^ hight, biu carried 
the Distemper ^ith them into the coimtries where 
they went, and infected those whom they went among 
for safety; which r ' ^ ^ ' ^ ^ 'n 

that be a propagati a 

the best means to previa ni- 
dence of it, and briagsn.: a : v an ned 
at before, but must speak more fully ' ly, 
that men went about apparently well n a:. . ^ airer 
they had the taint of the disease in their vitals, and 




MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 2/1 

after their spirits were so seized, as that they could 
never escape it ; and that all the while they did so, 
they were dangerous to others. I saj, this proves 
that so it was ; for such people infected the very towns 
they went through, as well as the families they went 
among ; and it was hv that means that almost all the 
great towns in England had the Distemper among 
them, more or less ; and always they would tell you 
such a Londoner* or such a Londoner brought it 
down. 

It must not be omitted, that when I speak of those 
people who were really thus dangerous, I suppose 
them to be utterly ignorant of their own condition ; 
for if they really knew their circumstances to be such 
as indeed they were, they must have been a kind of 
wilful ^lurderers, if they would have gone abroad 
among healthy people, and it would have verified 
indeed the suggestion which I mentioned above, and 
which I thought seemed untrue, viz., that the Infected 
people were utterly careless as to giving the Infection 
to others, and rather forward to do it than not ; and 
I believe it was partly from this very thing, that 
they raised that suggestion, which I hope was not 
really true in fact. 
' I confess no particular case is sufficient to prove a 
general, but I could name several people within the 
knowledge of some of their neighbours and families 
yet hving, who showed the contrary to an extreme. 
One Man, a master of a family in my neighbourhood, 
having the Distemper, he thought he had it given 
him by a poor workman whom he employed, and 
whom he went to his house to see, or went for some 
\\ work that he wanted to have finished, and he had 
ii some apprehensions even while he was at the poor 
•I workman's door, but did not discover it fully; but 
' the next day it discovered itself, and he was taken 



2/2 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 1 

very ill : upon whicli lie immediately caused himself 
to be carried into an out -building which he had in his 
yard, and where there was a chamber over a work- 
shop, the man being a brazier; here he lay, and here 
he died, and would be tended by none of his neigh- 
bours, but by a nurse from abroad, and would not 
suffer his wife, nor children, nor servants, to come up 
into the room, lest they should be infected ; but sent 
them his blessing and prayers for them by the nurse, 
who spoke it to them at a distance, and all this 
for fear of gi\dng them the Distemper, and without 
which, he knew as they were kept up, they could not 
have it. 

And here I must observe also, that the Plague, as 
I suppose all distempers do, operated in a different 
manner, on differing constitutions. Some were 
immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came to 
violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable head-aches, 
pains in the back, and so up to ratings and ragings 
with those pains : others with swellings and tumours 
in the neck or groin, or arm-pits, which, till they 
could be broke, put them into insufferable agonies 
and torment ; while others, as I have observed, were 
silently infected, the fever preying upon their spirits 
insensibly, and they seeing little of it, till they fell 
into swooning, and faintings, and death, without 
pain."^ 

* The following distinctive character of the Plague is given by 
Dr. Hodges. 

Pestis Description Pestis est morbus ab aura venenata, sub- 
tilissima, maxime exitiosa, simul ac contagiosa, complures eodem 
tempore diversarum regionem corripiens, a peculiar! potissimum 
Spiritus Nitro-aerei alteratione velut corruptiva ortus, cum Febre 
ut plurimum, et aliorum symptomatum perquam gravissimorum 
satellitio stipatus." Hodges's " Loimologia : sive Pestis nuperae 
apud Populum Londinensem grassantis Narratio Historica.'* 1671. 
8vo. p. 39. 

" Plague generally commences with rigor or shivering — followed 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



273 



I am not physician enough to enter into the par- 
1 ticular reasons and manner of these differing effects 
I of one and the same Distemper, and of its differing 
' operation in several bodies : nor is it my business 
here to record the obseryations which I really made, 
because the Doctors themselyes have done that part 
t much more effectually than I can do, and because 
my opinion may in some things differ from theirs. 
I am only relating what I know, or have heard, or 
believe, of the particular cases, and what fell within 
the compass of my view, and the different nature of 
the Infection, as it appeared in the particular cases 
which I have related ; but this may be added too, 
that though the former sort of those cases, namely, 
those openly visited, were the worst for themselves 
as to pain, I mean those that had such fevers, vomit- 
ings, head-aches, pains and swellings, because they 
died in such a dreadful mianner, yet the latter had 
the worst state of the disease ; for in the former they 
frequently recovered, especially if the swellings broke, 
but the latter was ine^dtable Death ; no cure, no help, 
could be possible, nothing could follow but Death: 
and it was worse also to others, because, as above, it 
secretly, and unperceived by others, or by themselves, 
1 communicated Death to those they conversed with, 
the penetrating poison insinuating itself into their 
blood in a manner which it is impossible to describe, 
or indeed conceive. 

I by heat, accelerated pulse, head-ache, depression of spirits, vomiting, 
or diarrhoea, and oppression of the chest. These are succeeded by 
a burning sensation at the pit of the stomach, a peculiar appearance 
of the eyes, styled a muddiness, by coma, delirium ; and in some 
cases death takes place suddenly, before the distinctive appearances 

I of buboes and carbuncles occur. But in other instances the symp- 
toms increase in violcDce more gradually, and after the characteristic 
swellings are seen purple spots, ecchymoses and petechias, the usual 
forerunners of death."— Dr. Rees's Cyclopaedia. 



274 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



This infecting and being infected^ without so mucli 
as its being known to either person, is evident from 
two sorts of cases, which frequently happened at that 
time : and there is hardly anybody living who was 
in London during the Infection, but must have known 
several of the cases of both sorts. 

First. — Fathers and mothers have gone about as if 
they had been well, and have believed themselves to 
be so, till they have insensibly infected, and been 
the destruction of their whole families : which they 
would have been far from doing, if they had had the 
least apprehensions of their being unsound and dan- 
gerous themselves. A family, whose story I have 
heard, was thus infected by the father, and the 
Distemper began to appear upon some of them, even 
before he found it upon himself; but searching more 
narrowly, it appeared he had been infected some 
time, and as soon as he found that his family had 
been poisoned by himself, he went distracted and 
would have laid ^dolent hands upon himself, but was 
kept from that by those who looked to him, and in a 
few days he died. 

Secondly; — The other particular is, that many 
people having been well to the best of their own 
judgment, or by the best observation which they 
could make of themselves for several days, finding- 
only a decay of appetite, or a light sickness upon 
their stomachs ; nay, some whose appetite has been 
strong, and even craving, and only a light pain in 
their heads, have sent for Physicians to know what 
ailed them, and have been found to their great sur- 
prise, at the brink of death, the tokens upon them, or 
the Plague gro™ up to an incurable height. 

It was very sad to reflect how such a person as 
this last-mentioned above, had been a walking de- 
stroyer, perhaps for a week or fortnight before that ; 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE.. 



275 



how he had rained those that he would have ha- 
zarded his hfe to save, and had been breathing Death 
upon them^ even perhaps in his tender kissing and 
jembracings of his own children. Yet thus certainly 
ft was, and often has been, and I could give many 
bartieular cases where it has been so. If, then, the 
I olow is thus insensibly stricken ; if the arrow flies 
dius unseen, and cannot be discoyered; to what pur- 
^^ose are all the schemes for shutting up or remo™g 
^he sick people ? Those schemes cannot take place 
but upon those that appear to be sick, or to be 
nfected; whereas there are among them, at the same 
ime, thousands of people who seem to be well, but 
ire all that while carrpng Death with them into all 
companies which they come into. 
• This frequently puzzled our Physicians, and espe- 
■ dally the apothecaries and surgeons, who knew not 
jaow to discover the Sick from the Sound ; they all 
allowed that it was really so, that many people had 
he Plague in their very blood, and preying upon 
heir spirits, and were in themselves but walking 
lutrified carcasses, whose breath was infectious, 
;.nd their sweat poison ; and yet were as well to 
ook on as other people, and even knew it not them- 
^Ives : — I say, they all allowed that it was really 
^rue, in fact, but they knew not how to propose a 
discovery.* 

My friend. Dr. Heath, was of opinion, that it 
light be known by the smell of their breath ; but 
jhen, as he said, who durst smell to that breath for 
I 'lis information? since, to know it, he must draw 



^ De Foe is here creating a mystery of what, from his own pre- 
Ijiises, must be open and apparent. No person could possibly come 
iiito society in the condition which he has described, without it being 
llumediately known that they were infected. Their very looks 
I ould betray them. 

11 



376 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



the stench of the Plague up mto his own brain, in - j 
order to distinguish the smell ! I have heard it was i 
the opinion of others, that it might be distinguished t » 
by the party's breathing upon a piece of glass, where ^ i 
the breath condensing, there might lining creatures j 
be seen by a microscope, of strange, monstrous, and tu 
frightful shapes, such as dragons, snakes, serpents, \[ 
and devils, horrible to behold: but this I yery much t 
question the truth of, and we had no Microscopes 
at that time, as I remember, to make the experiment j i 
with."^ 

It was the opinion also of another learned man, ; 
that the breath of such a person would poison and | 
instantly kill a bird; not only a small bird, but eyen 
a cock or hen, and that if it did not immediately kill 
the latter, it would cause them to be roupy, as they 
call it ; and particularly that if they had laid any eggs | 
at that time, they would be all rotten. But those 
are opinions which I never found supported by any 
experiments, or heard of others that had seen it; so, 
I leaye them as I find them, only with this remark, 
namely, that I think the probabilities are very strong 
for them. 

Some haye proposed that such persons should 
breathe hard upon warm water, and [haye inferred] 

♦ These fanciful speculations would be curious, if they had any- 

other origin than the imagination of the author. — In regard to the 
remark that " we had no microscopes at that time," De Foe is in 
error. The Microscope was known to, if not invented by, the cele- 
brated Galileo, about the beginning of the 17th century, and much 
improved by the Jansens, one of whose Microscopes was shown in 
the Court of James the First, by Cornelius Drebbel in 1619. The 
compound Microscope was the invention of Fontana, an Italian ; but 
it was afterwards greatly improved by the sagacious Lewenhoek, who 
bequeathed twenty-six of his best Microscopes to the Royal Society, 
with which he had corresponded on the subject of microscopical 
inquiries as early as 1673. Hooke's Micrographia " wag 
published in the very year of the Great Plague. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



27/ 



that they would leave an unusual scum upon it, or 
upon several other things, especially such as are of a 
glutinous substance, and are apt to receive a scum 
and support it. 

But from the whole I found, that the nature of 
this Contagion was such, that it was impossible to 
discover it at all, or to prevent its spreading from one 
to another,' by any human skill. 

There was, indeed, one difficulty, which I could 
never thoroughly get over to this time, and which 
there is but one way of answering that I know of, 
and it is this, viz., the first person that died of the 
Plague was on December 20th, or thereabouts, 1664,^ 
and in or about Long Acre ; whence the first person 
had the Infection was generally said to be from a 
parcel of silks imported from Holland, and first 
opened in that house. 

But after this, we heard no more of any person 
dying of the Plague, or of the Distemper being in 
that place, till the 9th of February, which was about 
seven weeks after, and then one more was buried out 
of the same house. Then it was hushed, and we 
were perfectly easy as to the public for a great while ; 
for there were no more entered in the weekly Bill to 
be dead of the Plague till the 22nd of xlpril, when 
there were two more buried, not out of the same 
house, but out of the same street ; and, as near as I 
can remember, it was out of the next house to the 
first. This was nine weeks asunder, and after this 
we had no more till a fortnight, and then it broke 
out in several streets, and spread every way.f Now 

* This is not strictly accurate : tliere were six persons died of tbe 
Plague in 1664 ; as appears from the general Bill for that year : the 
one who died in December was included in the last weekly Bill for 
that month, 

f There is some exaggeration here, as will be seen by the follow- 



278 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



the question seems to lie thus: — " Where lay the 
seeds of the Infection all this ivhile ? How came it 
to stop so long, and not stop any longer P " Either 
the Distemper did not come immediately by contagion 
from body to body, or if it did, then a body may be 
capable to continue infected^ without the disease dis- 
covering itself, many days, nay, weeks together, — 
even not a quarantine of days only, but a soixantine, 
not only forty days, but sixty days, or longer. 

It is true, there was, as I observed at first, and is 
well known to many yet living, a very cold winter, 
and a long frost, which continued three months, and 
this, the Doctors say, might check the Infection ; 
but then the learned must allow me to say, that if, 
according to their notion, the disease was, as I may 
say, only frozen up, it w^ould, like a frozen river, 
have returned to its usual force and current when it 
thawed, whereas the principal recess of this Infection, 
which was from February to April, was after the 
frost was broken, and the weather mild and warm. 

But there is another way of solving all this diffi- 
culty, which I think my own remembrance of the 
thing T\ill supply ; and that is, the fact is not 
granted, namely, that there died none [of the Plague] 
in those long intervals, viz., fromi the 20th of Decem- 
ber to the 9th of February, and from thence to the 



ing extracts from the weekly Bills. — From May 2nd to the 9th, 
nine persons died of the Plague ; from the 9th to the 16th, three 
persons ; from the 16th to the 23rd, fourteen persons ; from the 
23rd to the 30th, seventeen persons ; from the 30th to June 6th, 
forty-three persons; from the 6th to the 13th, one hundred and 
twelve persons ; and from the 13th to the 20th, one hundred and 
sixty-eight persons. It was only in the latter month, therefore, 
that the Plague began " to spread every way," and to make that 
rapid progress, which by the 10th of October had extended the 
Infection throughout every parish except one, connected with the 
metropolis. 



I MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 279 

j 22nd of April. The weekly Bills are the only evi- 
I dence on the other side, and those Bills were not of 
jj credit enough, at least with me, to support an hypo- 
i thesis, or determine a question of such importance 
I as this. For it was our received opinion at that 
. time, and I believe upon very good grounds, that the 
I fraud lay in the parish officers, searchers, and per- 
sons appointed to give account of the dead, and what 
diseases they died of ; and as people were very loath 
at first to have the neighbours believe their houses 
were infected, so they gave money to procure, or 
other\\ise procured, the dead persons to be returned 
as dying of other distempers.* This I know was 
practised afterwards in many places, I believe I 
might say in all places where the Distemper came, 
as will be seen by the vast increase of the numbers 
placed in the weekly Bills under other articles of 
diseases, during the time of the Infection. For ex- 
ample; — in the months of July and August, when 
the Plague was coming on to its highest pitch, it was 
very ordinary to have from a thousand to twelve 
hundred, nay, to almost fifteen hundred a week of 
other distempers ; not that the numbers in those 
distempers were really increased to such a degree, 
but that a great number of families and houses 
vv^here really the Infection was, obtained the favour to 
have their dead be returned of other distempers, to 

* There are two or three entries in " Pepys's Diary," which give 
support to the above surmise. Under the date of August the 30tb, 
he says, that the clerk of his own parish stated that he returned but 
six, although nine had died there of the Plague that week. On 
the following day he wrote : — " In the City died this week, 7496, 
and of them 6102 of the Plague : but it is feared that the true 
number of the dead this week is near 10,000 : partly from the poor 
that cannot be taken notice of, through the greatness of the number, 
and partly from the Quakers and others that will not have any bell 
ring for them." 



280 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



prevent the shutting up their houses. For ex- 
ample : — Dead of other diseases beside the Plague, 



From the 18th to the 25th July 


. 942 


To the 1st of August 


. . 1004 


To the 8th .... 


. 1213 


To the 15th 


. . 1439 


To the 22nd .... 


. 1331 


To the 29th 


. . 1394 


To the 5th of September 


. 1264 


To the 12th . 


. . 1046 


To the 19th .... 


. 1132 


To the 26th .... 


. . 927 



Now it was not doubted but the greatest part of 
these, or a grekt part of them, were dead of the 
Plague, but the officers were prevailed v\dth to return 
them as above; and the numbers of some particular 
articles of distempers discovered, are as follow; — 

From Aug. 1st to 8th. to 15th. to 22nd, to 29th. 



Fever 


314 


353 


348 


383 


Spotted Fever 


174 


190 


166 


165 


Surfeit 


85 


87 


74 


99 


Teeth . 


90 


113 


111 


133 




663 


743 


699 


780 


From Aug. 29, to 


Sept. 


5th. to 12th. 


to 19th. 


to 26th. 


Fever 


364 


332 


309 


268 


Spotted Fever 


157 


97 


101 


65 


Surfeit 


68 


45 


49 


36 


Teeth . 


. 138 


128 


121 


112 




727 


602 


580 


481 



There were several other articles which bore a 
proportion to these ; and which, it is easy to perceive, 
were increased on the same account, as aged, con- 
sumptions, vomitings, imposthumes, gripes, and the 
like: many of which were not doubted to be infected 
people ; but as it was of the utmost consequence to 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



281 



families not to be known to be infected^ if it was 
possible to avoid it, so they took all the measures 
I thev could to have it not believed; and if any died in 
j their houses, to get them returned to the Examiners, 
I and by the searchers, as ha^dng died of other dis- 
I tempers. 

I This, I say, will account for the long interval 
which, as I have said, was between the dpng of 
the first persons that were returned in the Bill to 

I be dead of the Plague, and the time when the 
Distemper spread openly, and could not be con- 
cealed. 

' Besides, the weekly Bills themselves, at that time, 
I evidently discover this truth; for, while there was 
I no mention of the Plague, and no increase after it 
' had been mentioned, yet it was apparent, that there 
w^as an increase of those distempers which bordered 
I nearest upon it: for example, there were eight, 
i twelve, seventeen of the Spotted Fever in a week, 
when there were none, or but very few of the Plague ; 
whereas before, one, three, or four were the ordinary 
weekly numbers of that distemper. Likewise, as 1 
observed before, the burials increased weekly in that 
particular parish, and the parishes adjacent, more 
than in any other parish; although there were none 
set down of the Plague; all which tells us, that the 
Infection was handed on, and the succession of the 
Distemper really preserved, though it seemed to us 
at that time to be ceased, and to come again in a 
manner surprising. 

It might be also, that the Infection might remain 
in other parts of the same parcel of Goods which at 
first it came in, and which might not be perhaps 
( opened, or, at least, not fully; or in the clothes of 
the first infected person ; for I cannot think that any- 
body could be seized with the Contagion in a fatal 



282 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



and mortal degree for nine weeks together, and 
support his state of health so well, as even not to 
discover it to themselves; — yet, if it were so, the 
argument is the stronger in favour of what I am say- 
ing, namely that the Infection is retained in bodies 
apparently well, and conveyed from them to those 
they converse vvith, while it is known to neither the 
one nor the other. 

Great were the confusions at that time upon this 
very account ; and when people began to be convinced 
that the Infection was received in this surprising 
manner from persons apparently well, they began to 
be exceeding shy and jealous of every one that came 
near them. Once on a public day, whether a sabbath 
day or not I do not remember, in Aldgate chm'ch, in 
a pew full of people, on a sudden, one fancied she 
smelt an ill smell; immediately she fancies the 
Plague was in the pew, whispers her notion or sus- 
picion to the next, then rises and goes out of the 
pew; it immediately took with the next, and so to 
them all; and every one of them, and of the two or 
three adjoining pews, got up and went out of the 
church, nobody knowing what it was offending them, 
or from whom. 

This immediately filled everybody's mouths with 
one preparation or other, such as the Old Women 
directed, and some, perhaps, as Physicians directed, 
in order to prevent Infection by the breath of others ; 
insomuch, that if we came to go into a Church, when 
it was anything full of people, there would be such 
a mixture of smells at the entrance, that it was 
much more strong, though perhaps less wholesome, 
than if you were going into an apothecary's or 
druggist's shop. In a word, the whole Church was 
like a smelling-bottle; in one corner it was all per- 
fumes, in another aromatics, balsamics, and variety 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 283 

of drugs and herbs; in another salts and spirits; as 
erery one v,'a.s furnished for their own preservation. 
Yet I observed^ that after people were possessed, as 
I have said, with the belief, or rather assui'ance, of 
the Infection being thus carried on by persons ap- 
parently in health, the churches and meeting-houses 
were much thinner of people than at other times 
before that they used to l3e ; for this is to be said of 
the people of London, that, during the whole time of 
the Pestilence, the churches or meetings were neyer 
wholly shut up, nor did the people decline coming 
out to the public T\"orship of God, except only in 
some parishes, when the violence of the Distemper 
was more particularly in that parish at that time; 
and eyen then, no longer than it continued to be so. 

Indeed nothing was more strange than to see with 
vv'hat courage the people went to the public service of 
God, eyen at that time when they were afraid to stir 
out of their own houses upon any other occasion; 
this I mean before the time of desperation, which I 
haye mentioned already. This was a proof of the 
exceeding populousness of the City, at the time of 
the Infection ; for notwithstanding the great numbers 
that were gone into the Country at the first alarm, 
and that fled out into the forests and woods when 
they were farther terrified with the extraordinary in- 
crease of it, when we came to see the crowds and 
throngs of people which appeared on the sabbath days 
at the churches, and especially in those parts of the 
town where the Plague was abated, or where it was 
not yet come to its height, it was amazing I but of this 
I shall speak again presently. I return, in the mean 
time, to the article of infecting one another at first. 
Before people came to right notions of the Infection, 
and of infecting one another, people were only shy 
of those that were really sick; — a man with a cap 



284 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



upon his head, or with cloths round his neck, ivMcJi 
tvas the case of those that had swellings there; such 
were indeed frightful. But when we saw a gentle- 
man dressed, mth his band on, and his gloves in his 
hand, his hat upon his head, and his hair combed, of 
such we had not the least apprehensions ; and people 
would converse a great while freely, especially ^ith 
their neighbours and such as they knew. But when 
the Physicians assured us that the danger was as 
well from the Sound, that is, the seeming!?/ sound, as 
the Sick: and that those people who thought them- 
selves entirely free, were oftentimes the most fatal; 
and that it came to be generally understood that 
people were sensible of it, and of the reason of it; 
then, I say, they began to be jealous of everybody, 
and a vast number of people locked themselves up, 
so as not to come abroad into any company at all, 
nor suffer any that had been abroad in promiscuous 
company to come into their houses, or near them: 
at least not so near them, as to be within the reach 
of their breath, or of any smell from them: and 
when they were obliged to converse at a distance T^ith 
strangers, they would always have preservatives in 
their mouths, and about their clothes, to repel and 
keep off the Infection. 

It must be acknowledged, that when people began 
to use these cautions, they were less exposed to 
danger, and the Infection did not break into such 
houses so furiously as it did into others, before; and 
thousands of families were preserved, (speaking with 
due reserve to the Direction of Diraie Providence,) 
by that means. 

But it was impossible to beat anything into the 
heads of the Poor : they went on with the usual 
impetuosity of their tempers, full of outcries and 
lamentations when taken, but madly careless of 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 285 

themselves, fool-hardy and obstinate, while they were 
well. Where they could get employment they pushed 
into any kind of business, the most dangerous and 
the most liable to Infection; and if they were spoken 
to, their answer would be, — I must trust to God for 
that : If I am taken, then I ain pi^omded for, and 
there is an End of me;" and the like : or thus, — 
" Wh2/, lohat must I dol I cannot starm; I had as 
good have the Plague as perish for want — / have no 
loork ; what could I do'^ I must do this or heg.'^ 
Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the 
sick, or watching infected houses, which were all ter- 
rible hazards; but their tale was generally the same. 
It is true. Necessity was a very justifiable warrantable 
plea, and nothing could be better ; but their way of 
talk was much the same, where the necessities were 
not the same. This adventurous conduct of the Poor 
was that which brought the Plague among them in a 
most furious manner, and this, joined to the distress 
of their circumstances, when taken, was the reason 
why they died so by heaps; for I cannot say I could 
observe one jot of better husbandry among them, I 
mean the labouring Poor, while they were all well, 
and getting money, than there was before, but as 
lavish, as extravagant, and as thoughtless for to- 
morrow as ever; so that when they came to be taken 
sick, they were immediately in the utmost distress, 
as well for want as for sickness, as well for lack of 
food as lack of health. 

The misery of the Poor I had many occasions to 
be an eye-witness of, and sometimes also of the cha- 
ritable assistance that some pious people daily gave 
to such, sending them relief and supplies both of 
food, physic, and other help, as they found they 
wanted. And, indeed, it is a debt of justice due to 
the temper of the people of that day, to take notice 



286 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



here, that not only great sums, very great sums of 
money, were charitably sent to the Lord Mayor and 
Aldermen for the assistance and support of the poor 
distempered People; but abundance of private people 
daily distributed large sums of money for their relief, 
and sent people about to inquire into the condition 
of particular distressed and visited families, and 
relieved them. Nay, some pious Ladies v^^ere so 
transported vi^ith zeal in so good a v^ork, and so con- 
fident in the protection of Providence in discharge 
of the great duty of charity, that they v^ent about 
in person distributing alms to the Poor ; and even 
visiting poor families, though sick and infected, in 
their very houses, appointing nurses to attend those 
that vi^anted attending, and ordering apothecaries and 
surgeons; the first to supply them with drugs or 
plasters, and such things as they wanted ; and the 
last to lance and dress the swellings and tumours, 
where such were wanting; giving their blessing to 
the Poor in substantial relief to them, as well as 
hearty prayers for them. 

I will not undertake to say, as some do, that none 
of those charitable people were suffered to fall under 
the calamity itself ; but this I may say, that I never 
knew any one of them that miscarried, which I men- 
tion for the encouragement of others in case of the 
like distress ; and doubtless, if " they that give to the 
Poor^ lend to the Lord, and he will repay them;'' 
those that hazard their lives to give to the poor, and 
to comfort and assist the poor in such a misery as 
this, may hope to be protected in the work. 

Nor was this charity so extraordinarily eminent 
only in a few; but (for I cannot lightly quit this point) 
the charity of the rich, as well in the City and 
suburbs, as from the Country, was so great, that in 
a word, a prodigious number of people, who must 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 28/ 

otliervvise inevitably have perished for want^ as well 
as sickness^ were supported and subsisted by it; and 
though I could never, nor 1 believe any one else, 
come to a full knowledge of what was so contributed, 
yet I do beheve that, as I heard one say who was a 
critical observer of that part, there was not only 
many thousand pounds contributed, but many hun- 
dred thousand pounds, to the Eelief of the Poor of 
this distressed afflicted City; nay, one man afflrmed to 
me that he could reckon up above one hundred thou- 
sand pounds a week, which was distributed by the 
Churchwardens at the several parish-vestries, by the 
Lord Mayor and the Aldermen in the several wards 
and precincts, and by the particular direction of the 
Court and of the Justices, respectively, in the parts 
where they resided; over and above the private cha- 
rity distributed by pious hands in the manner I speak 
of ; and this continued for many weeks together. 

I confess this is a vers' great sum ; but if it be 
true, that there was distributed in the parish of 
Cripplegate only, 17,800?. in one week,**^ to the 
relief of the poor, as I heard reported, and which I 
really believe was true, the other may not be im- 
probable. 

It was doubtless to be reckoned among the many 
signal good Providences which attended this great 
City, and of which there were many other worth 
recording ; I say, this was a very remarkable one, 
that it pleased God thus to move the hearts of the 
people in all parts of the kingdom, so cheerfully to 
contribute to the relief and support of the poor at 
London; the good consequences of which were felt 

* Notwithstanding the assurance given in the text, it is altogether 
incredible that such alarge sum as £17,800 could have been expendt^^d 
at CripplegPite for the ahove purpose within a single week. Even 
at the last enumeration in 1.831, the entire population of Cripple- 
gate Parish amounted only to 13,134. 



288 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



many ways, and particularly in preserving the lives 
and recovering the health of so many thousands, and 
keeping so many thousands of families from perishing 
and starving. 

And now I am talking of the merciful disposition 
of Proiidenee in this time of calamity, I cannot but 
mention again, though I have spoken several times of 
it already on other accounts, I mean that of the pro- 
gression of the Distemper ; how it began at one end 
of the town, and proceeded gradually and slowly from 
one part to another, and like a dark cloud that passes 
over our heads, which, as it thickens and overcasts 
the air at one end, clears up at the other end: so 
while the Plague went on raging from west to east, 
as it went forwards east, it abated in the west, by 
which means those parts of the town which were not 
seized, or which were left, and where it had spent its 
fury, were (as it were) spared to help and assist the 
other; — whereas, had the Distemper spread itself over 
the whole City and suburbs at once, raging in all 
places alike, as it has done since in some places 
abroad, the whole body of the people must have been 
overwhelmed, and there would have died twenty 
thousand a day, as they say there did at Naples, nor 
would the people have been able to have helped or 
assisted one another. 

For it must be observed that where the Plague was 
in its full force, there indeed the people were very 
miserable, and the consternation was inexpressible. 
But a little before it reached even to that place, or 
presently after it was gone, they were quite another 
sort of people, and I cannot but acknowledge, that 
there was too much of that common temper of man- 
kind to be found among us all at that time; namely, 
to forget the deliverance when the danger is past; 
but I shall come to speak of that part again. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 289 



It must not be forgot here to take some notice of 
tlie state of Trade during the time of this common 
calamity, and this with respect to Foreign trade, as 
also to our Home trade.* 

As to Foreign trade, there needs little to be said; 
the trading nations of Europe were all afraid of us, 
and no port of France, or Holland, or Spain, or Italy, 
would admit our ships or correspond with us : indeed 
we stood on ill terms with the Dutch, and were in a 
furious war with them, though but in a bad condition 
to fight abroad, who had such dreadful enemies to 
struggle with at home. 

Our merchants accordingly were at a full stop, 
their ships could go nowhere, that is to say, to no 
place abroad ; their manufactures and merchandize, 
that is to say, of our growth, would not be touched 
abroad : they were as much afraid of our goods as 
they were of our people ; and indeed they had reason, 
1 for our woollen manufactures are as retentive of In- 
I' faction as human bodies, and if packed up by persons 

* How greatly the Home trade must have suffered during this 
Visitation, may in some degree be appreciated by the tenor of a 
Proclamation which was made at Edinburgh on the 14th of July, 
1665, prohibiting all Trade and Commerce, until the first of No- 
vember following, between tbe kingdom of Scotland and all infected 
towns and villages whatsoever. No goods to be landed from vessels 
■ coming from suspected places without the permission of Magistrates, 
' and with proper precautions. Persons coming from England, or 
bringing commodities by land-carriage, to stay on the borders, and 
converse with no person without leave of a Sheriff, Justice of the 
Peace, or municipal Magistrate. Seamen, pilots, and fishermen, 
forbidden to go on board any vessel coming from beyond sea without 
a magistrate's warrant, &c. 

Only a week prior to the above, a Proclamation had been issued 
in England, forbidding the annual Fair to be held in St. James's 
Church-yard, Bristol, on account of the Plague. Other Proclama- 
1| tions were made in August, prohibiting the holding of St. Bartholo- 
mew's Fair, in London, and Stourbridge Fair, in Cambridgeshire, 
on the same account. 

U 



290 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



infected^ would receive the Infection, and be as dan- 
gerous to touch as a man would be that was infected; 
and, therefore, when any English vessel arrived in 
foreign countries, if they did take the goods on shore, 
they always caused the bales to be opened and aired 
in places appointed for that purpose. But from 
London, they would not suffer them to come into 
port, much less to unlade their goods, upon any terras 
whatever ; and this strictness was especially used 
with them in Spain and Italy. In Turkey, and the 
islands of the Aixhes [Archipelago] indeed, as they 
are called, as well those belonging to the Turks as 
to the Venetians, they were not so very rigid : in 
the first there was no obstruction at all; and four 
ships which were then in the river loading for Italy, 
that is, for Leghorn and Naples, being denied pro- 
duct, [pratique,'] as they called it, went on to Turkey, 
and were freely admitted to unlade their cargo with 
out any difnculty, only that when they arrived there^ 
some of their cargo was not fit for sale hi that 
country; and other parts of it being consigned to 
merchants at Leghorn, the captains of the ships had 
no right, nor any orders, to dispose of the goods; so 
that great inconveniences followed to the merchants. 
But this was nothing but what the necessity of affairs 
required, and the merchants at Leghorn and Naples 
having notice given them, sent again from thence to 
take care of the effects, which were particularly con- 
signed to those ports, and to bring back in other 
ships such as were improj)er for the markets at 
Smyrna and Scanderoon. 

The inconveniences in Spam and Portugal were 
still greater ; for they would by no means suffer our 
ships, especially those from London, to come mto 
any of their ports, much less to unlade. There was 
a report that one of our ships ha\ing by stealth 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE, 291 

jj delivered her cargo, among wliich were some bales 
i of English cloth^ cotton, kerseys, and such-like goods, 
the Spaniards caused all the goods to be burnt, and 
i punished the men with death who were concerned in 
I carrying them on shore. This I believe was in part 
] true, though I do not affirm it ; but it is not at all 
I unlikely, seeing the danger was really very great, 
the Infection being so violent in London. 

I heard likewise that the Plague was carried into 
those countries by some of our ships, and particularly 
into the port of Faro in the kingdom of Algarve, 
belonging to the king of Portugal ; and that several 
persons died of it there : but it was not confirmed. 
J On the other hand, though the Spaniards and 
Portuguese were so shy of us, it is most certain that 
the Plague, as has been said, keeping at first much 
at that end of the town next Westminster, the mer- 
chandising part of the town, such as the City and 
the water side, was perfectly sound, till at least the 
beginning of July ; and the ships in the river till the 
beginning of August ; for, to the first of July, there 
had died but seven within the whole City, and 
li but sixty within the Liberties : only one in all the 
I parishes of Stepney, Aldgate, and White-chapel ; 
! and but two in all the eight parishes of Southwark. 
' But it was the same thing abroad, for the bad news 
was gone over the whole world, that the city of 
London was infected with the Plague ; and there 
was no inquiring there how the Infection proceeded, 
nor at which part of the town it was begun, or was 
reached to. 

■ Besides, after it began to spread, it increased so 
fast, and the Bills grew so high, all on a sudden, that 
( it was to no purpose to lessen the report of it, or 
I endeavour to make the people abroad think it better 
than it was, the account which the weekly Bills gave 
u 2 

I 



292 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



in was sufficient ; and that there died from two 
thousand to three or four thousand a week, was 
sufficient to alarm the whole trading part of the 
world, and the follomng time being so dreadful also 
in the very City itself, put the whole world, I say, 
upon their guard against it. 

You may be sure, also, that the report of these 
things lost nothmg in the carriage : the Plague was 
itself yery terrible, and the distress of the people very 
great, as you may observe by what I have said ; but 
the rumour was infinitely greater, and it must not 
be wondered that our friends abroad, as my brother's 
correspondents in particular were told there, namely, 
in Portugal and Italy, where he chiefly traded, that 
in London there died twenty thousand in a week ; 
that the dead bodies lay unburied by heaps ; that 
the h\ing were not sufficient to bury the dead, nor 
the sound to look after the sick ; that all the King- 
dom was infected likewise, so that it was a uniyersal 
malady, such as was never heard of in those parts of 
the world. And they could hardly believe us, when 
we gave them an account how things really were, 
and how there was not above one-tenth part of the 
people dead ; that there was five hundred thousand 
left, that lived all the time in the town ; and that, 
now the people began to walk the streets again, and 
those who were fled to return, there was no miss of 
the usual throng of people in the streets, except as 
every family might miss their relations and neigh- 
bours, and the like. I say, they could not believe 
these things ; and if inquiry were now to be made 
in Naples, or in other cities on the coast of Italy, 
they would tell you that there was a dreadful Infec- 
tion in London so many years ago ; in which, as 
above, there died twenty thousand in a week, &c., 
just as we have had it reported in London that there 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



293 



I was a Plague in the city of Naples, in tlie year 1656, 
;| in which there died twenty thousand people in a 

II day ; of which I have had yery good satisfaction that 
{' it was utterly false.* 

But these extravagant reports were yery preju- 
. dicial to our trade, as well as unjust and injurious in 
jj f themselyes ; for it was a long time after the Plague 
i| was quite oyer, before our trade could recover itself 
|| in those parts of the world ; and the Flemings and 
j Dutch, but especially the last, made very great 
\ advantages from having all the market to themselves, 
,| and even buying our manufactures in the several parts 
of England where the plague was not, and carrying 
them to Holland, and Flanders, and from thence 
i; transporting them to Spain and to Italy, as if they 
' had been of their own making. 

But they were detected sometimes and punished, 
that is to say, their goods confiscated, and ships 
also ; for if it was true, that our manufactures, as 
, well as our people, were infected, and that it was 
I dangerous to touch or to open, and receive the smell 
I, of them ; then those people ran the hazard by that 
clandestine trade, not only of carrying the contagion 

* The Plague at Naples in 1656, was far more destructive than 
that which desolated London nine years afterwards. It is stated in 
the ** Universal History," (vol. 25, p. 168,) that it raged so vio- 
lently in that City as to destroy 400,000 of the inhabitants in less 
than six months ; and that for some time, in the month of July, the 
deaths amounted daily to 15,000. Superstitious processions, and 
other ill-advised measures, carried the Infection into every part of 
the City ; and the general calamity was increased by the seditious 
tumults of the populace, who were infuriated by the belief that the 
disorder had been designedly introduced by the Spaniards ; and that 
people in disguise were going through the City " sowing poisoned 
Dust." So strong was the excitement thus produced, that the Vice- 
roy of Naples judged it expedient to pacify the mob, by causing an 
unfortunate criminal to be broken upon the wheel, under pretence 
that he was a disperser of the Dust ! 



294 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



into their own country^ but also of infecting the 
nations to whom they traded with those goods : 
which, considering how many hves might be lost in 
consequence of such an action, must be a trade that 
no men of conscience could suffer themselves to be 
concerned in. 

I do not take upon me to say, that any harm was 
done, I mean of that kind; by those people. But I 
doubt, I need not make any such proviso in the case 
of our own country ; for either by our people of 
London, or by the commerce, which made their con- 
versing with, all sorts of people in every country, and 
of every considerable town necessary ; I say, by this 
means the Plague was first or last spread all over the 
kingdom, as well in London, as in all the cities and 
great towns, especially in the trading manufacturing 
towns, and sea-ports ; so that first or last, all the con- 
siderable places in England were visited more or less, 
and the kingdom of Ireland in some places, but not so 
universally ; how it fared with the people in Scotland, 
I had no opportunity to inquire.* 

It is to be observed that while the Plague con- 
tinued so violent in London, the out-ports, as they 
are called, enjoyed a very great trade, especially to 
the adjacent countries, and to our own plantations ; 
for example, the towns of Colchester, Yarmouth, and 
Hull, on that side of England, exported to Holland 
and Hamburgh, the manufactures of the adjacent 
counties for several months after the trade with 
London was, as it were, entirely shut up ; likeT\dse 
the cities of Bristol and Exeter, with the port of 
Plymouth, had the like advantage to Spain, to the 

* On the 16tli of August, 1665, a Proclamation was published at 
Edinburgh, for a General Fast to be kept throughout Scotland on 
the second AVednesday in September ; from which it appears that 
the Pestilence bad not extended to Scotland at that time. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



295 



Canaries, to Guinea, and to the West Indies, and 
particularly to Ireland. But as the Plague spread 
itself every way after it had been in London to such 
a degree as it was in August and September, so all, 
jj or most of those cities and towns, were infected first 
i or last ; and then trade was, as it were, under a 
f general embargo, or at a full stop, as I shall observe 
jl farther, when I speak of our home trade. 
I One thing, however, must be observed, that as to 
; ships coming in from abroad, as many you may be 
sure did, some who were out in all parts of the world 
a considerable while before, and some who when they 
went out knew nothing of an Infection, or at least, of 
one so terrible ; these came up the river boldly, and 
delivered their cargoes as they were obliged to do, ex- 
cept just in the two months of August and September, 
when the weight of the Infection lying, as I may say, 
all below bridge, nobody durst appear in business for 
a while. But, as this continued but for a few weeks, 
the homeward-bound ships, especially such whose 
cargoes were not Hable to spoil, came to an anchor 
for a time, short of tlie Pool,* or fresh water part 
of the river, even as low as the river Medway, where 
several of them ran in, and others lay at the Nore, 
and in the Hope below Gravesend : so that by the 
latter end of October, there was a very great fleet of 
homeward-bound ships to come up, such as the like 
had not been known for many years. 

Two particular trades were carried on by water 
carriage all the while of the Infection, and that with 
little or no interruption, very much to the advantage 
and comfort of the poor distressed people of the city, 

* That part of the River where the Ships lie up when they 
come home, is called the Pool, and takes in all the River, on 
both sides of the water, from the Toiver to Cuckold's Pointy 
I and Limehouse, 



296 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

and those were the coasting trade for Corn, and the 
Newcastle trade for Coals. 

The first of these was particularly carried on by 
small vessels from the port of HuU^ and other places 
on the Humber^ by which great quantities of com 
were brought in from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire ; the 
other part of this corn-trade was from Lynn in Nor- 
folk, from Wells, and Burnham, and from Yarmouth, 
all in the same county ; and the third branch was 
from the river Medway, and from Milton, Faversham, 
Margate, and Sandmch, and all the other little places 
and ports round the coasts of Kent and Essex. 

There was also a very good trade from the coast of 
Suffolk, with corn, butter, and cheese. These vessels 
kept a constant course of trade, and without inter- 
ruption came up to that market, known still by the 
name of Bear-key, where they supplied the city 
plentifully with corn, when land carriage began to 
fail, and when the people began to be sick of coming 
from many places in the country. 

This also was much of it owing to the prudence 
and conduct of the Lord Mayor, who took much care 
to keep the masters and seamen from danger, when 
they came up ; causing their corn to be bought off 
at any time they wanted a market, (whicb, however, 
was very seldom,) and causing the corn -factors im- 
mediately to unlade and deliver the vessels loaden 
with corn, that they had very little occasion to come 
out of their ships or vessels, the money being always 
carried on board to them, and put into a pail of 
vinegar before it was carried. 

The second trade was that of coals from New- 
castle upon Tyne ; without which the City would 
have been greatly distressed ; for not in the streets 
only, but in private houses and families, great quan- 
tities of coals were then burnt, even all the summer 



j MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 297 

long, and when the weather was hottest, which w^as 
done bj the advice of the Physicians. Some indeed 
opposed it, and insisted that to keep the houses and 
i rooms hot, was a means to propagate the Distemper, 
which was a fermentation and heat aheady in the 
, blood ; that it was known to spread and increase in 
' hot weather, and abate in cold ; and therefore they 
alleged that all contagious distempers are the worse 
for heat, because the contagion was nourished and 
gained strength in hot weather, and was, as it were, 
propagated in heat. 
i| r Others said, — they granted that heat in the climate 
'i might propagate Infection, as sultry hot weather 
fills the air with vermin, and nourishes innumerable 
numbers and kinds of venomous creatures, which 
breed in our food, in the plants, and even in our 
bodies, by the very stench of which, infection may be 
propagated ; also that heat in the air, or heat of 
weather, as we ordinarily call it, makes bodies relax 
and faint, exhausts the spirits, opens the pores, and 
makes us more apt to receive Infection, or any evil 
influence, be it from noxious pestilential vapours, or 
any other thing in the air; — but that the heat of 
fire, and especially of coal fires, kept in our houses 
or near us, had a quite different operation, the heat 
being not of the same kind, but quick and fierce, 
tending not to nourish, but to consume and dissipate 
all those noxious fumes, which the other kind of heat 
rather exhaled, and stagnated, than separated, and 
burnt up : besides, it was alleged, that the sulphurous 
and nitrous particles, that are often found to be in the 
coal, with that bituminous substance which burns, are 
all assistant to clear and purge the air, and render it 
wholesome and safe to breathe in, after the noxious 
particles (as above) are dispersed and burnt up. 
The latter opinion prevailed at that time, and as I 



298 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



must confess I think with good reason, and the expe- 
rience of the citizens confirmed it, many houses 
which had constant fires kept in the rooms, harin^ 
never been infected at all: and I must join my expe^. 
rience to it, for I found the keeping of good fires'" 
kept our rooms sweet and wholesome, and I do rerilv 
believe^ made our whole family so, more than would 
otherwise have been. 

But I return to the coals as a trade. It was with 
no little difficulty that this trade was kept open, and 
particularly because as we were in an open war with 
the Dutch at that time, the Dutch Capers at first took 
a great many of our coiner ships, wliich made the 
rest cautious, and made them to stay to come in fleets 
together. But after some time, 'the Capers were 
either afraid to take them, or their masters, the 
States, were afraid they should, and forbade them, 
lest the Plague should 'be among them, which made 
them fare the better. 

For the security of those northern traders, the 
coal ships were ordered by my Lord Mayor, not to 
come up into the Pool above a certain number at a 
time ; and he ordered hghters, and other vessels, 
such as the wood-mongers^that is the irliarf-heepers, 
or coal-sellers furnished, to go down and take out the 
coals as low as Deptford and Greenwich, and some 
farther down. 

Others delivered great quantities of coals in parti- 
cular places, where the ships could come to the shore, 
as at GreenT\ich, Blackwall, and other places, in vast - 
heaps, as if to be kept for sale ; but thev were then 
fetched away, after the ships which brought them 
were gone ; so that the seamen had no communica- 
tion with the river men, nor so much as came near 
one another. 

Yet all this caution could not effectually prevent 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



299 



the Distemper getting among the colliery, that is to 
say, among the ships, by which a great many seamen 
died of it ; and that which was still worse, was that 

. they carried it down to IpsT^ich and Yarmouth, to 
Newcastle upon Tyne, and other places on the coast ; 

f where, especially at Newcastle and at Sunderland, it 
carried off a great number of people. 

The making so many fires as above, did indeed 
consume an unusual quantity of coals ; so that upon 
one or two stops of the ships coming up, whether by 
contrary weather, or by the interruption of enemies, 

' I do not remember^ the price of coals was exceeding 
dear, even as high as 4/.* a chaldron; but it soon 
abated when the ships came in, and as afterwards 
they had a freer passage, the price was veiy reason- 
able all the rest of that year. 

The public Fires which were made on these occa- 
sions, as I have calculated it, must necessarily hare 
cost the City about 200 chaldrons of coals a week, 
if they had continued, which was indeed a very great 
quantity: but as it was thought necessary, nothing 
was spared : however, as some of the Physicians cried 
them down, they were not kept a-light above four or 
five days. The Fires were ordered thus: 

One at the Custom House, one at Bilhngsgate, one 
at Queenhithe, and one at the Three Cranes ; one in 
Blackfriars, and one at the gate of Bridewell; one at 

* It was probably on this occasion of the Coals rising so high, 
and in order to defeat the cupidity of the dealers, that an Act of 
Common Council "was passed (bearing date of the first of June, 
1665,) " for the benefit and relief of the Poor in times of dearth 
and scarcity," &c., by which the City Companies were ordered to 
purchase and lay up, yearly, between Lady-day and Michaelmas, 
7510 chaldrons of coals, that the same might be vended in dear 
times, at such prices as the Lord Mayor and Aldermen should 
direct ; so that the same should not be sold to loss. The number 
of chaldrons to be purchased by each Company, is particularly spe- 
cified in the Act. 



300 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



the corner of Leadenliall Street, and Grace-cliurcli; 
one at the north and one at the south gate of the 
Royal Exchange ; one at Gniklhallj and one at 
Blackwell-IIall gate ; one at the Lord ^Mavor' s door, 
m St. Helen's, one at the west entrance mto St. 
Paul's, and one at the entrance into Bow Church. I 
do not remember whether there was any at the City 
gates, but one at the Bridge foot there was, just by 
St. Magnus' Church.* 

I know some have quarrelled since that, at the 
experiment, and said, that there died the more people 
because of those Fires; but I am persuaded those that 
say so, offer no eridence to prove it, neither can I 
believe it on any account whatever. f 

* The Fires were far more numerous than De Foe has here spe- 
cified, and, as will be seen by the Proclamation, vide Appendix, No, 
IV., they were ordered to be kindled in "all Streets, Courts, Laces, 
and Alleys, of the City and Suburbs thereof ; " and, in fact, one 
Fire between every twelve Houses. In the Xewes/' of Sep- 
tember the 7th, (No. 73,) is this paragraph : — 

" London, Sept. 6th. — In pursuance of the Order of the Rt. Hon. 
the Lord Mayor, mentioned in our last, for making of Fires through- 
out all the Streets of London, aud Liberties thereof, to be continued 
for three whole days and nights, as an expedient which has been 
used in other places in times of Pestilence with very good effect : 
Yesternight, at the hour appointed, the Fires were kindled, and are 
to be kept burning till the said three days and nights shall be 
expired ; the Lord 2>Iayor and Sheriffs employing their utmost dili- 
gence, in this, as upon all other occasions wherein the honour and 
safety of this glorious City are concerned : of which their care it is 
a considerable proof and instance that in this sad time, there is issued 
out of the Chamber of London ^600 weekly, for the relief of the 
Poor, which must otherwise have perished by extreme want." 

j; De Foe's belief cannot controvert the positive fact that the 
Mortality most grievously increased, from the very night that the 
Fires were lit, until nearly the end of the month. The Deaths in 
August, from all causes, are stated in the Bills of Mortality at 
25,427 ; in September (inclusive of two days in August), at 30,699 ; 
and in October (inclusive of four days in September), at 17,20L 
Dr. Hodges's testimony on this point may be seen in a former note : 
vide pp. 239, 240. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAOrE. 



301 



It remains to gire some account of tlie state of 
trade at home in England, during tliis dreadfid time ; 
and particularly as it relates to the manufactures, 
and the trade in the City. At the first breaking out 
of the Infection, there was, as it is easy to suppose, 
a very great fright among the people, and conse- 
quently a general stop of trade, except in pro- 
visions and necessaries of hfe ; and even in those 
things, as there was a vast number of people fled, 
and a very great number always sick, besides the 
number which died, so there could not be above 
two-thirds, if above one-half, of the consumption of 
provisions in the City as used to be. 

It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of 
corn and fruit, but not of hay or grass; by which 
means bread was cheap, by reason of the plenty of 
corn; flesh was cheap, by reason of the scarcity of 
grass ; but butter and cheese were dear for the same 
reason ; and hay in the market, just beyond Vvliite- 
chapel bars, was sold at 4/. per load. But that 
affected not the poor: there was a most excessive 
plenty of all sorts of fruit, such as apples, pears, 
plums, cherries, grapes; and they were the cheaper, 
because of the want of people; but this made the 
poor eat them to excess, and this brought them into 
fluxes, griping of the guts, surfeits, and the like, 
which often precipitated them into the Plague. 

But to come to matters of trade: — First, foreign 
exportation being stopped, or at least very much in- 
terrupted, and rendered difiicidt, a general stop of all 
those manufactures followed of course, which were 
usually bought for exportation; and though some- 
times merchants abroad were importunate for goods, 
yet httle was sent : the passages being so generally 
stopt, that the English ships woidd not be admitted, 
as is said already, into their port. 



302 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



This put a stop to tlie manufactures, that were for 
exportation, in most parts of England, except in 
some out -ports, and eren that was soon stopped; for 
they all had the Plague in their turn. But though 
this was felt all over England, yet what was still 4 
worse, all intercourse of trade for home consumption ^ 
of manufactures, especially those which usually cir- 
culated through the Londoners' hands, was stopped 
at once, the trade of the City being stopped. 

All kinds of handicrafts in the City, &c., trades- 
men, and mechanics, were, as I haye said before, out 
of employ, and this occasioned the putting off, and 
dismissing an innumerable number of journeymen 
and workmen of all sorts, seeing nothing was done 
relating to such trades, but what might be said to be 
absolutely necessary. 

This caused the multitude of single people in 
London to be unprovided for ; as also of families 
whose liying depended upon the labour of the heads 
of those families : I say, this reduced them to extreme 
misery ; and I must confess it is for the honour 
of the City of London, and T^ill be for many ages, as 
long as this is to be spoken of, that they were able 
to supply with charitable proyision the wants of so 
many thousands of those as afterwards fell sick, and 
were distressed ; so that it may be safely ayerred 
that nobody perished for want, at least, that the 
Magistrates had any notice giyen them of.* 

This stagnation of our manufacturing trade in the 
countr}', would haye put the people there to much 
greater difficulties, but that the master workmen, 
clothiers, and others, to the uttermost of their stocks 
and strength, kept on making their goods to keep the 

^ With the annexed limitation, the fact, as stated by De Foe, 
may possibly be admitted ; yet the circumstances related in pages 
129 — 135, include much evidence to the contrary. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



303 



I Poor at work, believing that as soon as the Sickness 
j' should abate, they would have a quick demand in 
l| proportion to the decay of their trade at that 
I time : but, as none but those masters that were 
j! rich could do thus, and that many were poor and 
I not able, the manufacturing trade in England suffered 
f greatly, and the poor were pinched all over England 
[ !j by the calamity of the City of London only. 
I It is true, that the next year made them full 
|i amends by another terrible calamity upon the City ; 
i so that the City by one calamity impoverished and 
1 weakened the country, and by another calamity, 
jl even terrible too of its kind, it enriched the country, 
' and made them again amends. For an infinite 
i quantity of household stuff, wearing apparel, and 
other things, besides whole warehouses filled with 
merchandize and manufactures, such as come from 
i all parts of England, were consumed in the Fire of 
' London, the next year after this terrible Visitation. 
It is incredible what a trade this made all over the 
whole kingdom, to make good the want, and to 
supply that loss; so that, in short, all the manu- 
facturing hands in the Nation were set on work, and 
were little enough, for several years, to supply the 
market and answer the demands. All foreign 
markets also were empty of our goods, by the stop 
which had been occasioned by the Plague, and before 
an open trade was allowed again ; and the prodigious 
demand at home falling in, joined to make a quick 
, vent for all sorts of goods ; so that there never was 
known such a trade all over England for the time, as 
was in the first seven years after the Plague, and 
^; after the Fire of London. 

I It remains now that I should say something of the 
I merciful part of this terrible Judgment. The last 
' week in September, the Plague being come to its 



304 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



crisis, its fury began to assuage."^ I remember my 
friend Dr. Heath, coming to see me tbe week before 
told me, lie was sure that the violence of it would 
a3suage in a few days ; but when I saw the weekly 
Bill of that week, which was the highest of the 
whole year, being 8297 of all diseases, I upbraided 
him with it, and asked him what he had made his 

* lu the " Newes" of September the 27th, (No. 79) is this 
passage : — LondoD, Sept. 27. — This place is infinitely revived by 
the blessed change which it hath pleased God in his goodness to 
vouchsafe us this week, and our prayers and hopes are, that it will 
prove but an earnest of a further mercy. The Burials are decreased 
according to the ordinary bills of Mortality 1837, this last week. 
The Mortality in all was 6460, and of the Plague 5533, whereof, 
in probability, according to the best judgment we can make of 
this week now current, there will be yet a greater abatement the 
next." 

How different appearances were in the preceding week, may be 
conceived from a passage in Pepys, under the date of Sept. 20th, 
namely : — " To Lambeth : — but Lord ! what a sad time it is to see 
no boats upon the River ; and grass grows all up and down Whitehall 
Court, and nobody but wretches in the street ! And what is worst 
of all, the Duke (of Albemarle) shewed us the number of the 
Plague this week, brought in last night from the Lord Mayor ; that 
it is increased about 600 more than the last, which is quite contrary 
to our hopes and expectations, from the coldness of the late season." 
—Diary, vol. ii. 

The following striking passage occurs in *^ A Sermon preached 
at the Funeral of Mr. Abraham Janeway, Minister of the Gospel 
in Aldermanbury Church, Sept. 18, 1665. By Thomas Vincent, 
sometime Minister of Maudlin's, Milk-street. London, 1667 : 
12mo. 

Sinners, have you not read the black Bill of 6988 which died 
by the Plague the first week of this Moneth, (September) and 6544 
which died by the Plague the second week ? and do the Bells sound 
a retreat of this enemy Death which hath got amongst us ? Do the 
multitude of Coffins which you see carried every hour to the grave 
speak a decrease of the Plague? Many thousands are fallen, and more 
thousands are like to fall, and who of you all that are in your sins, 
can reasonably hope to escape? Some of the righteous themselves 
do fall, and if God spareth not his own people, how can you think 
of preservation ? " 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 305 

judgment from ? His answer, however, w^as not so 
much to seek, as I tlioiiglit it would have been. 

Look you/' says he, by the number which are at 
this time sick and infected, there should have been 
; twenty thousand dead the last week, instead of eight 
' thousand, if the inveterate mortal Contagion had been 
I as it was two weeks ago ; for then it ordinarily 
killed in two or three days, now not under eight or 
ten, and then not above one in five recovered ; 
Avhereas, I have observed, that now not above two in 
five miscarry, and observe it from me, the next Bill 
will decrease, and you will see many more people 
recover than used to do ; for though a vast multitude 
are now every where infected, and as many every 
day fall sick, yet there will not so many die as there 
did, for the malignity of the Distemper is abated;" 
adding, that he began now to hope, nay, more than 
hope, that the Infection had passed its crisis, and 
was going off; — and accordingly so it was, for the 
next week being, as I said, the last in September, 
the bill decreased almost two thousand. 
' It is true, the Plague was still at a frightful 
I height, and the next bill was no less than 6460, and 
the next to that 5/20; but still my friend's obser- 
ivation w^as just, and it did appear the people did 
'recover faster, and more in number, than they used 
'to do; and indeed, if it had not been so, what had 
been the condition of the City of London ? For, 
according to my friend, there were not fewer than 
sixty thousand people at that time infected, whereof, 
as above, 24,477 died, and near 40,000 recovered; 
whereas, had it been as it w^as before, fifty thousand 
of that number would very probably have died, if 
inot more, and fifty thousand more would have sick- 
lened ; for in a word, the whole mass of people began 
Ito sicken, and it looked as if none would escape. 

i 



306 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



But this remark of my friend's appeared more 
evident in a few weeks more ; for the decrease went 
on, and another week in October it decreased 1849 ; 
so that the number dead of the Plague was but 2665 ; 
and the next week it decreased 1413 more, and yet 
it was seen plainly that there was abundance of 
people sick, nay, abundance more than ordinary, and 
abundance fell sick every day, but (as above) the 
mahgnity of the disease abated."^ 

Such is the precipitant disposition of our people, — - 
whether it is so, or not, all over the world, that i§ 
none of my particular business to inquire, — but I 
saw it apparently here, that as upon the first fright 
of the Infection they shunned one another and fled 
from one another's houses, and from the city, with 
an unaccountable, and, as I thought, unnecessary 
fright ; so now, upon this notion spreading, viz. 
that the Distemper was not so catching as formerly, 
and that if it was catched, it was not so mortal, and 
seeing abundance of people, who really fell sick, 
recover again daily ; they took to such a precipitant 
courage, and grew so entirely regardless of them- 

* In the Intelligencer/' No. 80, under the date October 4th^ 
IS a passage corresponding with the above remark, viz. The Bill of 
Mortality for this week has decreased 740, and we are encouraged ' 
to hope for a farther abatement — from the consideration of the 
Distemper itself, which is observed not to be so mortal as it was, i 
the greater part of the infected now escaping (Death). On the f 
3rd of October, a Royal Proclamation was issued at Oxford, 
appointing a General Fast, on account of the Plague — to be kept 
November 8th, instead of All Saints' Day, which had been first fixed 
on All Saints' Day being a great festival of the church, and so i 
not fit to be kept as a day of fasting and humiliation. Anotiier Pro- 
clamation was issued on the 15th of October, adjourning the Courts 
of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancery, for a part of 
Michaelmas Term, from Westminster to Oxford. The Exchequer 
Court had been removed to Nonsuch, in Surrey, about the middle 
of August, previously. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



307 



selves, and of the Infection, that tlaey made no more 
of the Plague than of an ordinary fever, nor indeed so 
much ; they not only went boldly into com^pany T^ith 
those who had tumours and carbuncles upon them, 
that were running, and consequently contagious, but 
ate and drank with them, nay, went into their houses 
to visit them, and even, as I was told, into their very 
chambers where they lay sick. 

This I could not see rational. My friend Dr. 
Heath allowed, and it was plain to experience, that 
the Distemper was as catching as ever, and as many 
fell sick, but he alleged, that so many of those that 
fell sick did not die ; — but I think that while many 
did die, and that, at best, the Distemper itself was 
very terrible, the sores and swelhngs very torment- 
ing, and the danger of death not left out of the cir- 
cumstance of sickness, though not so frequent as 
before ; that all those things, together with the ex- 
ceeding tediousness of the cure, the loathsomeness of 
the disease, and many other articles, were enough to 
deter any man hving fromi a dangerous mixture with 
the sick people, and make them as anxious almost to 
avoid the Infection as before. 
^ Nay, there was another thing which made the 
I mere catching of the Distemper frightful, and that 
' was the terrible burning of the caustics, which the 
surgeons laid on the swellings to bring them to 
: break, and to run ; without which the danger of 
' Death was very great, even to the last : also the 
- unsufrerable torment of the swelhngs, which though 
' it might not make people raving and distracted, as 
they were before, and as I have given several in- 
stances of already, yet they put the patient to inex- 
. pressible torment : and those that fell into it, though 
' they did escape with hfe, yet they made bitter com- 
I plamts of those that had told them there was no 

X 2 



308 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



danger, and sadly repented their rastmess and folly 
in venturing to run into tlie reach of it. 

Nor did this unwary conduct of the people end 
here, for a great many that thus cast off their cau- 
tions suffered more deeply still ; and though many 
escaped, yet many died; and at least, it had this 
public mischief attending it, that it made the de- 
crease of burials slower than it would otherwise have 
been; for as this notion run hke lightning through 
the City, and the people's heads were possessed with 
it, even as soon as the first great decrease in the Bills 
appeared, we found, that the two next Bills did not 
decrease in proportion. The reason I take to be the 
people's running so rashly into danger, giving up all 
their former cautions, and care, and all the shraess 
which they used to practise ; depending that the 
Sickness would not reach them, or that if it did, they 
should not die. 

The Physicians opposed this thoughtless humour 
of the people with all their might, and gave out 
printed directions, spreading them all over the City 
and suburbs, advising the people to continue reserved, 
and to use still the utmost caution in their ordinary 
conduct, notwithstanding the decrease of the Dis- 
temper ; terrifying them with the danger of bringing 
a relapse upon the whole City, and telling them how 
such a relapse might be more fatal and dangerous 
than the whole Visitation that had been already ; 
with many arguments and reasons to explain and 
prove that part to them, and which are too long to 
repeat here. 

But it was all to no purpose : the audacious crea- 
tures were so possessed with the first joy, and so sur- 
prised with the satisfaction of seeing a vast decrease 
in the weekly Bills, that they were impenetr^fble by 
any new terrors, and would not be persuaded but 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



309 



ii that the Bitterness of Death was passed; and it was 
to no more purpose to talk to them than to an east 
wind; but they opened shops, went about streets, 
did business, and conversed with any body that came 

• in their way to converse with, whether with business, 
or without ; neither inquiring of their heaUh, nor so 
much as being apprehensive of any danger from them, 
though they knew them not to be sound. 

This imprudent rash conduct cost a great many 
their hves, who had with great care and caution shut 
themselves up, and kept retired as it were, from 
all mankind, and had by that means, under God's 
Providence, been preserved through all the heat of 
that Infection. 

This rash and foolish conduct, I say, of the people 
went so far, that the Ministers took notice to them 
of it at last, and laid before them both the folly and 
danger of it; and this checked it a httle, so that 
they grew more cautious : but it had another effect, 
which they could not check. For as the first rumour 
had spread, not over the City only, but into the 
country, it had the hke effect, and the people were 
so tired with being so long from London, and so 

* Pepys, under the date of November the Qth, says,—" The Bill 
of Mortality, to all our griefs, is increased 399 this week, and the 
increase is general through the whole City and Suburbs, which 
makes us all very sad." — In the three following weeks, however, a 
I decrease of the deaths from Plague, of 400 weekly, took place; and 

I the " Intelligencer," No. 9-4, after mentioning the decrease of deaths, 
; Nov. 15th, says, — " The disease is not so mortal as formerly, which 

gives great ground of encouragement to the citizens, abundance re- 
turning out of the country whither they had retired during the heat 
of the contagion ; so that now there begins to appear a face of trade 
again, and a very great freedom of conversation as in former times." 

I I The general confidence, indeed, was so much restored by the end of 
ij November, that, as we learn from Pepys, the Yoi'k waggon re- 
commenced its journeys to the metropolis, it having discontinued 

' travelling for several months prior to that time. 



310 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



eager to come back, that they flocked to town with- I 
out fear or forecast, and began to show themselves in - 
the streets, as if all the danger was over : it was ' 
indeed surprising to see it, for though there died still 
from a thousand to eighteen hundred a week, yet the ' 
people flocked to town, as if all had been well. 

The consequence of this was, that the Bills in- j 
creased again four hundred, the very first week in 
November; and if I might believe the Physicians, 
there were about three thousand fell sick that week, | 
most of them new comers too. 

One John CocJc, sl barber in St. Martin' s-le-Grand, 
was an eminent example of this ; I mean of the hasty 
return of the people, when the Plague was abated. 
This John Cock had left the town with his whole 
family, and locked up his house, and had gone into 
the country, as many others did, and finding the i 
Plague so decreased in November, that there died 
but 905 per week, of all diseases, he ventured home 
again. He had in his family ten persons, that is to 
say, himself and wife, five children, two apprentices, | 
and a maid-servant; he had not been returned to his i 
house above a week, and begun to open his shop, and ^ 
carry on his trade, but the Distemper broke out in J 
his family, and within about five days they all died, ^ 
except one ; that is to say, himself and wife, all his j 
five children, and his two apprentices — and only the f 
maid remained alive. 

But the mercy of God was greater to the rest than [ 
we had reason to expect ; for the malignity, as I have 
said, of the Distemper was spent, the contagion was 
exhausted, and also the winter weather came on 
apace, and the air was clear and cold, with some 
sharp frosts; and this increasing still, most of those 
that had fallen sick recovered, and the health of the 
City began to return. There were, indeed, some 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



311 



returns of the Distemper, even in the month of 
December^ and the bills increased near a hundred, 
but it went off again, and so in a short while things 
began to return to their own channel. - And won- 
derful it was to see how populous the City was agahi 
all on a sudden ; so that a stranger could not miss 
the numbers that were lost, neither was there any 
miss of the inhabitants as to their dwellings : few or 
no empty houses were to be seen, or if there were 
some, there was no want of tenants for them. 

I wish I could say, that as the City had a new 
facC; so the manners of the people had a new appear- 
ance. I doubt not but there were many that retained 
a sincere sense of their Dehyerance, and that were 
heartily thankful to that sovereign Hand that had 
protected them in so dangerous a time; it would be 
very uncharitable to judge otherwise in a City so 
populous, and where the people were so devout as 



* Under the date of December the 13th, Pepys ^Tote thus : — 
The Plague is increased again this week, notwithstanding there 
hath been a loDg day or two great frosts; but we hope it is only the 
effects of the late close warm weather, and if the frost continue the 
next week, may fall again ; but the town do thicken so much with 
people, that it is much if the Plague do not grow again upon us." 
On the 31st of the same month, he says, — IVIany of such as I 
knew Teiy well, are dead ; yet to our great joy the town fills again, 
and shops begin to be open again. Pray God continue the Plague's 
decrease, for that keeps the Court away from the place of business, 
and so all goes to wrack as to public matters." On the 3rd of 
January, 1665-6, he remarks, that the Plague had decreased to 70 
during the week, and that the deaths in all were only 253; "which 
is the least Bill known these twenty years in the City." The 
latter fact he attributes to " the want of people in London." This 
** want of people " must have continued some weeks longer in the 
Westminster parishes, since Pepys made the following entry on 
January the 19th; — '^It u a remarkable thing how infinitely naked 
all that end of the town, Covent Garden, is, at this day, of people; 
while the City is again almost as full of people as ever it was."— 
Diary^ vol. ii. 



312 



MEMOIRS OF TKE PLAGUE. 



tliey were here in the time of the Visitation itself. 
But except what of this was to be found in particular 
families and faces^ it must be acknowledged that the ' 
general practice of the people was just as it was before, 
and very little difference w'as to be seen. 

Some, indeed, said things were worse, and that the 
morals of the people declined from this very time; 
that the people, hardened by the dangers that they 
had been in, like seamen after a storm is over, w^ere 
more wicked and more stupid, more bold and hard- 
ened in their vices and immoralities than they were 
before; but I will not carry it so far neither. — It 
would take up a History of no small length, to give a 
particular of all the gradations by which the course 
of things in this City came to be restored again5 and 
to run in their own channel as they did before. 

Some parts of England were now infected as 
\dolently as London had been; the cities of Norwich, 
Peterborough, Lincoln, Colchester, and other places, 
were now visited;"^ and the Magistrates of London 
began to set rules for our conduct, as to corresponding 
with those cities. It is true, we could not pretend 
to forbid their people coming to London, because it 
was impossible to know them asunder, so after many 
consultations, the Lord Mayor, and Court of Alder- 

*■ Generally speaking, the Pestilence decreased in country towns 
in the winter months, as it did in London ; and there were very few 
places indeed where it raged so violently as in the Metropoli?. The 
following article relating to its progress in the county of Durham 
appeared in the "Newes," No. 85 — "Durham, Oct. 13th. The con- 
tagion in this country, which was brought hither about three months 
since, by certain passengers from London and Yarmouth, is now 
by the favour of God, much assuaged. Sunderland, where it was ] 
first brought, being now perfectly well ; and the other infected 
places in a very hopeful condition. The sick persons are all of 
them removed out of the town into huts built in the Fields at a 
convenient distance for that purpose, to the great cost and charge of 
this country." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



313 



I men, were obliged to drop it : all they could do^ was 

J to warn and caution the people^ not to entertain in 
their houses or converse with any people who they 
knew came from such infected places. 

But they might as well have talked to the air, for 
the people of London thought themselves so Plague- 

( free, now, that they were past all admonitions. They 
seemed to depend upon it, that the air was restored, 
and that the air was like a man that had the small- 
pox, not capable of being infected again ; this revived 
that notion, that the Infection was all in the air, 
that there was no such thing as contagion from the 

' sick people to the sound; and so strongly did this 
whimsy prevail among people, that they ran alto- 
gether promiscuously, sick and well. Not the Maho- 
metans, who, prepossessed with the principle of 
predestination, value nothing of contagion, let it be 

j in what it will, could be more obstinate than the 
people of London : they that were perfectly sound, 
and came out of the wholesome air, as we call it, into 
the City, made nothing of going into the same houses 
and chambers^ nay, even into the same beds, with 
those that had the Distemper upon them, and were 
not recovered.* 

* The ground-work of this part of De Foe's " Memoirs "was most 
probably suggested by the following passage in Hodges's " Loimologia," 

I viz. — " The houses which before were full of the dead, were now 
again inhabited by the living ; and the shops which had been most 

I part of the year shut up, were again opened, and the people again 
cheerfully went about their wonted affairs of trade and employ; and 
even, what is almost beyond belief, those citizens who were before 
afraid even of their friends ard relations, would, without fear, ven- 
ture into the houses and rooms where infected persons had a little 
before breathed their last ; nay, such comforts did inspire the lan- 
guishing people, and such confidence, that many went into the beds 
where persons had died, even before they were cold or cleansed from 

I the stench of the disease." — Loimologia, p. 27. 

! It is remarkable that Dr. George Pye (who published two 



314 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Some^ indeed, paid for their audacious boldness 
with the price of their hves. An infinite number 
fell sick, and the Physicians had more work than 
ever, only vdth this difference, that more of their 
patients recovered; that is to say, they generally reco- 
vered; but certainly there were more people infected, 
and fell sick now, when there did not die above a 
thousand or twelve hundred a week, than there was 
when there died five or six thousand a week; so 
entirely negligent w^ere the people at that time, in 
the great and dangerous case of Health and Infec- 
tion; and so ill were they able to take or accept of 
the advice of those who cautioned them for their good. 

The people being thus returned, as it were, in 
general, it was very strange to find that, in their 
inquiring after their friends, some whole families were 
so entirely swept away, that there was no remem- 
brance of them left; neither was any body to be found 
to possess or show any title to that little they had 
left; for in such cases, what was to be found was 

*' Discourses of tlie Plague,'^ in 1721, in opposition to Dr. Mead's 
opinion on the contagions nature of the disorder) made the follow- 
ing erroneous comment on the above passage, namely : — Here it 
is expressly affirmed that those who went near the sick, and even 
into their beds, did noi catch this sickness, and yet the Pestilence 
was very far from being ceased at that time — and hence Dr. Pye 
infers, we must conclude, that the Pestilence depended entirely on 
the constitution of the air, and was not at all communicated from 
sick persons." 

Now Dr. Hodges does noi affirm what is here attributed to him ; 
nor is there any part in his woik in which he makes the assertion 
that the Sickness was not caught by those who acted in the rash 
and imprudent manner which he has described. The very fact of the 
Mortality immediately increasing from 1031, in the last week of 
October, to 1414 and 1050 in the first and second weeks of Novem- 
ber, which was the time when the Citizens were fast returning to 
the infected houses, is a proof that many persons suffered for their 
temerity. It is very evident from Dr. Hodges's work that he himself 
considered the Plague to be contagious. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



315 



: generally embezzled and purloined^ some gone one 
1 way, some another. 

i| It was said, such abandoned effects came to the 
1 King as the universal Heir ; upon which we are told, 
j and I suppose it was in part true, that the King 
granted ail such as Deodands to the Lord Mayor and 
I Court of Aldermen of London, to be applied to the 
ii use of the Poor, of whom there were very many : for 
' it is to be observed, that though the occasion of relief 
and the objects of distress were very many more in 
the time of the violence of the Plague, than now 
after all was over ; yet the distress of the Poor was 
more now a great deal than it was then, because all 
the sluices of general charity were now shut. People 
supposed the main occasion to be over, and so stopped 
their hands ; w^hereas particular objects were still very 
moving, and the distress of those that were poor was 
very great indeed. 

Though the health of the City was now very much 
restored, yet foreign trade did not begin to stir, 
neither would foreigners admit our ships into their 
ports for a great while : as for the Dutch, the mis- 
understandino-s between our Court and them had 
broken out into a war the year before ; so that our 
; trade that way was wholly interrupted; but Spain 
i and Portugal, Italy and Barbary, as also Hamburgh, 
and all the ports in the Baltick, these were all shy of 
us a great while, and would not restore trade with us 
for many months. 

The Distemper sweeping away such multitudes, 
as I have observed, many, if not all the out-parishes, 
were obliged to make new Burying-grounds, besides 
that I have mentioned in Bunhill-fields ; some of 
I which were continued, and remain in use to this day ; 
j but others were left off, and which, I confess, I men- 
' tion it with some reflection, being converted into 

1 



316 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



otlier uses, or built upon afterwards, the dead bodies 
were disturbed, abused, and dug up again ; some even 
before tbe flesb of them was perished from the bones, 
and removed like dung or rubbish to other places : 
some of those which came within the reach of my 
observations were as follow :~ 

First. — A piece of ground beyond Goswell-street, 
near Mount mill, being some of the remains of the 
old hues, or fortifications, of the City, where abrni- 
dance were buried promiscuously from the parishes 
of Alder sgate, Clerkenw^ell, and even out of the City. 
This ground, as I take it, was first made a physic 
garden, and after that built upon. 

Second. — A piece of ground just over the Black 
Ditch, as it was then called, at the end of HoUoway- 
lane, in Shoreditch parish : it has been since made a 
yard for keeping hogs, and for other ordinary uses, 
but is quite out of use as a burying-ground. 

Third. — The upper end of Hand-alley, in Bishops- 
gate-street, which was then a green field, w^as taken 
in particularly for Bishop sgate parish, though many 
of the carts out of the City brought their dead thither 
also, particularly out of the parish of St. Allhallows, 
on the Wall; this place I cannot mention without 
much regret. It was, as I remember, about two or 
three years after the Plague had ceased, that Sir 
Robert Clayton came to be possessed of the ground ; 
it was reported, how true I know not, that it fell to 
the King for w^ant of heirs, all those who had any 
right to it being carried off by the pestilence, and 
that Sir Robert Clayton obtained a grant of it from 
King Charles II. But however he came by it, cer- 
tain it is, the ground w^as let out to build on, or built 
upon by his order ; the first house built upon it was 
a large fair house, still standing, which faces the 
street, or way, now called Hand-alley, which, though 



I 

I 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 317 

called an alley, is as vdde as a street. The houses in 
the same row with that house northward, are built 
on the very same ground where the poor people were 
buried, and the bodies, on opening the ground for the 
i foundations^ were dug up, some of them remaining so 
plain to be seen, that the women's skulls were distin- 
j guished by their long hair, and of others the flesh 
was not quite perished ; so that the people began to 
exclaim loudly against it, and some suggested that it 
might endanger a return of the contagion. After this, 
the bones and bodies, as fast as they came at them, 
were carried to another part of the same ground, and 
thrown altogether into a deep Pit, dug on purpose, 
which now is to be knomi, hi that it is not built on, 
but is a passage to another house, at the upper end of 
Rose-alley, just against the door of a meeting-house, 
which has been built there many years since : and the 
, ground is palisadoed off from the rest of the passage, 
' in a httle square : there lie the bones and remains of 
near two thousand bodies, carried by the Dead-carts 
to their grave in that one year. 

Fourth. — Besides this, there was a piece of ground 
in Moorfields, by the going into the street which is 
j now called Old Bethlem, which was enlarged much, 
j though not wholly taken in on the same occasion. 
! [N. B. The Author of this Journal lies buried in 
that very ground, being at his own desire, his Sistev 
having been buried there a few years before.] 

Fifth. — Stepney parish, extending itself from the 
east part of London to the north, even to the very 
edge of Shoreditch church-yard, had a piece of ground 
taken in to bury their dead, close to the said church- 
yard ; and which for that very reason was left open, 
I and is since, I suppose, taken into the same church- 
j yard : and they had also two other burying-places in 
I Spittle-fields ; one, where since a chapel or tabernacle 

I 



318 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



lias been built for ease to this great parish^ and 
another in Petticoat-lane. 

There were no less than five other grounds made 
use of for the parish of Stepney at that time ; one, 
where now stands the parish church of St. Paul's, 
Shadwell ; and another where now stands the parish 
church of St. John, at Wapping ; both which had not 
the names of parishes at that time, but were belong- 
ing to Stepney Parish*. 

I could name many more, but these coming within 
my particular knowledge, that circumstance I thought 
made it of use to record them. From the whole it 
may be observed, that they were obhged in this time 
of distress to take in new Burying-grounds in most 
of the out-parishes, for laying the prodigious numbers 
of people which died in so short a space of time ; but 
why care was not taken to keep those places separate 
from ordinary uses, that so the bodies might rest 
undisturbed, that I cannot answer for, and must con- 
fess, I tliink it was wrong : who were to blame, I 
know not. 

1 should have mentioned, that the Quakers had at 
that time also a Bmying-ground set apart to their 
use, and which they still make use of, and they had 
also a particular Dead-cart to fetch their dead from 
their houses ; and the famous Solomon Eagle, who, 
as I mentioned before, had predicted the Plague as a 
judgment, and run naked through the streets, (telling 
the people that it was come upon them, to punish 
them for their sins,) had his own wife died the very 
next day, of the Plague, and she was carried one of 
the first in the Quaker's Dead-cart to their new 
Burying-ground. 



St. Paul's, Shadwell, was constituted a distinct parish in 1669, 
and St. John's, Wapping, in 1694 ; both of them had previously 
been chapelries to Stepney. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



319 



ji I might have thronged this account with many 

! more remarkable things which occurred in the time - 
of the Infection, and particularly of what passed be- 
tween the Lord Mayor and the Courts which was 

j then at Oxford, and what directions were from time 
to time receiyed from the Gov ernment for their con- 

^ duct on this critical occasion. But really the Court 
concerned themselves so httle, and that little they 
did was of so small import, that I do not see it of 
much moment to mention any part of it here, except 
that of appointing a monthly fast in the City, and 
the sending th.e royal charity to the rehef of the poor, 
both of which I have mentioned before*. 

Great was the reproach thrown on those Phy- 
sicians who left their patients during the Sickness, 
and now they came to town again, nobody cared to 
employ them ; they w^ere called deserters, and fre- 
quently bills were set up upon their doors, and % 

I written — Here is a Doctor to be let!" — so that 
several of those Physicians were fain for a while to 
sit still and look about them; or at least remove 
their dwellings and set up in new places, and among 

, new acquaintance f. The like was the case with the 

.! __ 

* The observance of the Monthly Fast is noticed in different 
j numbers of the **Newes" and "Intelligencer." In the former 
' paper, No. 91 (Nov. 7 th), is an account of contributions from 
the town of Derby, where many of the Londoners appear to 
have taken refuge. The Oxford Gazette, No. 10, December 
14 — 18, announced that the King intended to keep his Christmas 
at Oxford. 

I + Dr. Hodges made a few remarks on this subject, which it may 
; not be inexpedient to introduce. "Physicians," he says, "could 
L not be blamed for retiring; the disease was not subject to their art. 
' Many learned Physicians retired, not so much for their own preser- 
vation, as the service of those they attended : those who stayed, the 
;l Plague put to their non-plus ; in such strange and changeable shapes 
jj did the cameleon-like sickness appear ! There were Empirics (when 
|1 all art failed) who pretended to perform wonders ; but were supposed 



320 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Clergy^ who tlie people were indeed very abusive to, 
writing verses and scandalous reflections upon them, 
setting upon the church door — Here is a Pulpit to 
be let ! " — or sometimes, to be Sold/' — which was 
worse*. 

It was not the least of our misfortunes, that with 
our Infection, when it ceased, there did not cease the 
spirit of strife and contention j slander and reproach, 
which was really the great troubler of the Nation's 
peace before : it was said to be the remains of the old 
animosities, which had so lately involved us all in 
blood and disorder. But as the late Act of Indem- 
nity had laid asleep the quarrel itself, so the Govern- 
ment had recommended family and personal peace, 
upon all occasions, to the whole Nation. 

But it could not be obtained, and particularly 
after the ceasing of the Plague in London, when any 
H^one that had seen the condition which the people had 
been in, and how they caressed one another at that 
time, promising to have more charity for the future, 
and to raise no more reproaches ; — -I say, any one 
that had seen them then, would have thought they 



to send numbers to Heaven wlao were wished to tarry longer on 
earth, to he useful in a time of such inexpressible distress." Vide 
Loimologia; Quincey's Translation, p. 23. 

* Pepys, under the date of February the 4th, 1665-6, alludes to 
this subject in the following words : — ^' Lord's Day, — and my wife 
and I the first time at Church (St. Olave's, Hart Street), since the 
Plague, and now only because Mr. Mills is coming home to preach 
his first sermon ; expecting a great excuse for his leaving the Parish 
before anybody went, and now staying till all are come home : but 
he made a very poor and short excuse, and a bad sermon." In an 
entry made a week previously, Pepys expresses his alarm in going 
through the church-yard, at " seeing the graves lie so high, where 
people had been buried of the Plague." Many about the City, he 
remarks, ** are solicitous to have the church-yards covered with 
lime, and I think it needful, and ours I hope will be done." 
Diary, vol. ii. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



321 



would have come together witli another spirit at last ; 
but, I say, it could not be obtained; the quarrel 
remained, the Church and the Presbyterians were 
incompatible. As soon as the Plague was removed, 
the dissenting ousted ministers, who had suppHed 
the pulpits which were deserted by the Incumbents, 
retired — they could expect no other ; but that they 
should imm^ediately fall upon them, and harass them 
with their penal laws, accept their preaching while 
they were sick, and persecute them as soon as they 
were recovered again; — this even we that were of 
the Church thought was very hard, and could by no 
means approve of it. 

But it was the Government, and we could say 
nothing to hinder it ; we could only say, it was not 
our doing, and we could not answer for it. 

On the other hand, the Dissenters reproaching 
those ministers of the Church with going away and 
deserting their charge, abandoning the people in their 
danger, and that when they had most need of com- 
fort, and the hke, this we could by no means approve ; 
for all men have not the same faith, and the same 
courage, and the Scripture commands us to judge the 
j, most favourably, and according to charity. 
' A Plague is a formidable enemy, and is armed with 
I terrors that every man is not sufficiently fortified 
i to resist, nor prepared to stand the shock against. 
I It is very certain, that a great many of the Clergy, 
' who were in circumstances to do it, withdrew, and 

I fled for the safety of their lives ; but it is true also, 

I I that a great many of them stayed, and many of them 
1 fell in the calamity, and in the discharge of their 
i duty. 

I It is true, some of the dissenting turned -out 
I ( Ministers stayed, and their courage is to be com- 
! mended, and highly valued, but these were not in 

' Y 



322 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

abundance. It cannot be said that they all stayed, 
and that none retired into the country, any more 
than it can be said of the Church clergy, that they 
all went away; neither did all those that went-away, 
o-o without substituting curates, and others in their 
places, to do the offices needful, and to visit the 
sick as far as it was practicable ; so that upon the 
whole an allowance of charity might have been 
made on both sides, and we should have considered, 
that such a time as this of 1665, is not to be paral- 
leled in History, and that it is not the stoutest 
courage that will always support men in such cases. 
I had not said this, but had rather chosen to record 
the courage and rehgious zeal of those of both sides, 
who did hazard themselves for the service of the 
poor people in their distress, without remembering 
that any failed in their duty on either side ; but the \ 
want of temper among us has m.ade the contrary to 
this necessary : some that stayed, not only boasting 
too much of themselves, but reviling those that lied, 
branding them with cowardice, deserting their fiocKs, 
and acting the part of the hireling, and the like. I 
recommend it to the charity of all good people to 
look back and reflect duly upon the terrors of the ; 
time, and whoever does so will see, that it is not anK 
ordinary strength that could support it ; it was not 
like appearing at the head of an army, or charging at 
body of horse in the field; but it was charging ^ 
Death himself on his pale Horse. To stay was, 
indeed to die, and it could be esteemed nothing less, , 
especially as things appeared at the latter end of 
August and the beginning of September, and as there 
was reason to expect them at that time ; for no man 
expected, nor, I dare say, beheved, that the Distemper 
would take so sudden a turn as it did, and fall 
immediately 2000 in a week, when there was such a 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLx\GUE. 



323 



prodigious number of people sick at that time, as it 
was known there was ; and then it was that many 
shifted away that had stayed most of the time before. 

Besides, if God gave strength to some more than 
to others, was it to boast of their abihty to abide the 
stroke, and upbraid those that had not the same gift 
and support? or ought not they rather to have been 
humble and thankful, if they were rendered more 
useful than their brethren ? 

I think it ought to be recorded to the honour of 
such men, as well clergy as physicians, surgeons, 
apothecaries, magistrates, and officers of every kind, 
as also all useful people, who ventured their lives in 
discharge of their duty, as most certainly all such as 
stayed did, to the last degree ; and several of all these 
; kinds did not only venture, but lost, their lives on that 
sad occasion. 

I was once making a list of all such, I mean of all 
i those professions and employments who thus died, 
, as I call it, in the way of their duty ; but it was 
impossible for a private man to come at a certainty 
in the particulars. I only remember, that there died 
I sixteen clergymen, two aldermen, five physicians, 
^sand thirteen surgeons, within the City and hberties 
jhefore the beginning of September : but this being, 
las I said before, the great crisis and extremity of the 
^Infection, it can be no complete list.^ As to inferior 

i|; * ** In this raging Pestilence,'* says L' Estrange, in the "Intel- 
>i-ligencer" of October 21st (No. 86), we cannot but look upon 
. J t as an earnest of further blessings that it has pleased Almighty 
{ iijfod to spare those public Ministers, Magistrates and Officers upon 
g .Those lives the peace and order of the government so much de- 

)ends ; insomuch that I do not find this visitation to have taken 
^ iway in or about this city any one person of prime authority and 
;i 1 ;ommand. His Grace the Lord Abp. of Canterbury [Sheldon] hath 
Jl jAl this while kept his station, and constantly attended all the duties 
itf his charge and function." The Duke of Albemarle [Monck] is 

^Iso praised for having kept his post during the Plague. — The gallant 
Y 2 



324 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



people, I tliink there died six-and-forty constables 
and headborouglis in tlie two parishes of Stepney 
and Whitecliapel ; but I could not carry my list on, 
for wlien the yiolent rage of the Distemper in Sep- 
tember came upon us, it droye us out of all measures. 
Men did then no more die by tale and by number ; 
thev might put out a weekly Bill, and call them 
seyen or eight thousand, or what they pleased ; but 
^tis certain they died by heaps, and were buried by 
heaps, that is to say, without account ; and if I 
might belieye some people, who were more abroad 
and more conyersant vdth those things than I, 
(though I was public enough for one that had no 
more business to do than I had,) I say, if I may 
belieye them, there were not many less buried those 
first three weeks m September than 20,000 per week. 
But howeyer the others ayer the truth of this, yet I 
rather choose to keep to the public account : seyen 
and eight thousand per week is enough to make good 
all that I haye said of the terror of those times ; and 
it is much to the satisfaction of me that wiite, as 
well as those that read, to be able to say, that eyery 
thing is set down vriih moderation, and rather within 
compass than beyond it. 

Upon all these accounts I say I could wish, when 
we were recoyered, our conduct had been more dis- 
tinguished for charity and kindness in remembrance 
of the past calamity, and not so much in yaluing 
ourselyes upon our boldness in staying; as if all men 
were cowards that flee from the hand of God, or that 
those who stay, do not sometimes owe their courage 

Lord Craven, whose history is so closely associated with that of 
the Electress Elizabeth, and some remnants of whose town residence 
raay yet be found near the lower end of Drury Lane, was one of 
the few, also, who became deservedly popular from remaining in the 
Metropolis, and supplying the wants of the poor, during the raging 
of the Plague. 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



325 



to their ignorance, and despising the Hand of their 
Maker, which is a criminal kind of desperation, and 
not a true courage. 

I cannot but leave it upon record, that the civil 
officers, such as constables, headboroughs, lord mayor's 
and sheriffs' men, as also parish officers, whose busi- 
ness it was to take charge of the poor, did their duties 
in general with as much courage as any; and perhaps 
with more, because their work was attended with 
more hazards, and lay more among the poor, who 
were more subject to be infected, and in the most 
pitiful phght when they were taken with the Infec- 
tion ; but then it must be added too, that a great 
number of them died, indeed it was scarce possible it 
should be otherwise. 

I have not said one word here about the Physic 
or Preparations that we ordinarily made use of on 
this terrible occasion ; I mean we that went frequently 
abroad up and down street, as I did. Much of this 
was talked of in the books and bills of our quack 
doctors, of whom I have said enough already; it may, 
however, be added, that the College of Physicians 
were daily publishing several Preparations, which 
they had considered of in the process of their practice, 

, and which being to be had in print, I avoid repeating 

, them for that reason. 

} One thing I could not help observing, what befel 
j one of the Quacks, who published that he had a most 
1 excellent Preservative against the Plague, which 
( whoever kept about them, should never be infected, 
( nor hable to Infection ; this man, who we may 
reasonably suppose did not go abroad mthout some 
[ of this excellent Preservative in his pocket, yet was 
\ taken by the Distemper, and carried off in two or 
^ three days. 

I am not of the number of the Physic-haters, or 



326 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Physic-despisers ; on the contrary, I liaTe often 
mentioned the regard I had to the dictates of my 
particular friend Dr. Heath; but yet I must acknow- 
ledge, T made use of little or nothing, except, as I 
have observed, to keep a preparation of strong scent, 
to have ready in case I met with anythuig of offensire 
smells, or went too near any burpng-place, or dead 
body. 

Neither did I do what I know some did, keep the 
spirits always high and hot with cordials, and wine, 
and such things ; and which, as I observed, one 
learned Physician used himself so much to, as that 
he could not leave them off when the Infection was 
quite gone, and so became a Sot for all his life after. 

I remember, my friend the doctor used to say, that 
there vras a certain set of drugs and preparations, 
which were all certainly good and useful in the case 
of an Infection ; out of which, or vdth which, Physi- 
cians might make an infinite variety of medicines, as 
the ruigers of bells make several hundred different 
rounds of music by the changing and order of sound 
but in six bells ; — and that all these preparations 
shall be really very good ; therefore," said he, I 
do not wonder that so vast a throng of medicines is 
offered in the present calamity ; and almost every 
physician prescribes or prepares a different thing, as 
his judgment or experience guides him: but," says my 
friend, let all the prescriptions of all the Physicians 
in London be examined, and it will be found that they 
are all compounded of the same things, with such 
variations only, as the particular fancy of the doctor 
leads him to; so that," says he, every man judging 
a little of his ovm constitution, and manner of his 
living, and circumstances of his being infected may 
direct his own medicines out of the ordinary drugs 
and preparations. Some recommend one thing as 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



327 



I most sovereign, and some another; some," says he, 

f " think that Pill. Ruffi, which is called, itself, the 
Anti-pestilential Pill, is the best preparation that can 
be made ; * others think, that Venice Treacle is suffi- 
cient of itself to resist the contagion, and I/' con- 
tinued he, think as both these think, viz., that the 

f first is good to take beforehand to prevent it, and the 
last, if touched, to expel it." According to this opinion, 
I several times took Venice Treacle, and a sound 
sweat upon it, and thought myself as well fortified 
against the Infection as any one could be fortified by 

1 the power of Physic. 

As for quackery and mountebank, of which the 
town was so full, I listened to none of them, and 



* The PiluIcB Rvfi is a composition of Aloes and Myrrh, still 
retained in the London Pharmacopoeia, as a useful aperient medicine, 
under the name of PiluIcB Aloes cum Myrrha. Venice Treacle, 
jj which is a cordial confection consisting of many ingredients, including 
I Opium, has been replaced in modern medical practice by the less 
complicated Confectio Opii. 

The following passage, bearing on this subject, is derived from 
i the Correspondence of Mr. Oldenburgh with the Hon. Robert 
Boyle, and appears in a Letter dated by the former, from London, 

I on the 18th of September, 1665. Siguier Borrhi was an Italian 

I Practitioner of some repute. "Siguier Borrhi hath expressed a 

j real favour and kindness to me, which, when he first mentioned it, 
I looked upon as a mere compliment : for he hath sent me his own 

; Anti-loimoides, so conveniently prepared, that he inclosed it (the 
medicine itself) in a fine bladder, which he so squared that it was 
handsomely put up in a Letter, and so came safely to my hands ; 
but had that strength of scent, that the man who brought me the 
Letter said it must be some rare medicine come from beyond sea, 

' against the Plague. It is made up in the consistency of Mithri- 
date, or Treacle, and hath a very comfortable smell ; yet I have 
not hitherto made use of it, but only tasted as much of it as the 

|, bigness of a pin's head, but know not what to make of it. Me- 
thinks 1 find myrrh and aloe, Mithridate and Treacle in it : and I 

} had sent you a pattern of it in this very Letter, but that I thought 
you might be so much surprised by the scent thereof.'^ — Boyle's 

I Works, vol. vi. p. 194. 



328 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



obserrecl, often since, .with, some wonder, that for two 
years after the Plague, I scarcely saw or heard of 
one of them about town. Some fancied they were 
all swept away in the Infection to a man. and were 
for calling it a particular mark of God's vengeance 
upon them, for leading the poor people into the pit 
of destruction, merely for the lucre of a httle money 
tliey got by them ; but I cannot go that lengtli 
neither ^ that abundance of them died is certain, 
many of whom came vrithin the reach of my own 
knowledge ; but that all of them were swept off I 
much question : I believe rather they fled into the 
country, and tried their practices upon the people 
there, who were in apprehension of the Infection 
before ir came among them. 

This however is certain, not a man of them 
appeared for a great while in or about London. 
There were, indeed, several Doctors, who pubhshed 
bills, recommending their several physical Prepa- 
rations for cleansing the body, as they call it, after 
the Plague, and needful, as they said, for such 
people to take, who had been visited and had been 
cured ; — whereas I must own, I beheve that it was 
the opinion of the most eminent physicians at that 
time, that the Plague was itself a sufficient piu'ge ; 
and that those who escaped the Infection needed no 
physic to cleanse their bodie? of any other things ; 
the running sores, the tumours, kc, which were 
broken and kept open by the directions of the Phy- 
sicians, having sufficiently cleansed them ; and that 
all other distempers, and causes of distempers, were 
effectually carried off that way : and as the Physicians 
gave this as their opinion wherever they came, the 
quacks got little business. 

There were, indeed, several little hurries which 
happened after the decrease of the Plague, and 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



329 



which, whether they were ccmtriYed to fright and 
disorder the people, as some imagined, I cannot say, 
but sometimes we were told the Plague would return 
' by such a time; and the famous Solomon Eagle, the 
I naked Quaker I have mentioned, prophesied evil 
tidings every day ; and several others told us that 
j London had not been sufficiently scourged, and the 
' sorer and severer strokes were yet behind. Had 
they stopped there, or had they descended to parti- 
culars, and told us that the City should the next 
year be destroyed by' Fire ; then indeed, when we 
had seen it come to pass, we should not have been to 
blame to have paid more than common respect to 
their prophetic spirits, — at least, we should have 
wondered at them, and have been more serious in our 
inquiries after the meaning of it, and whence they 
had the fore-knowledge : but as they generally told 
us of a relapse into the Plague, we have had no con- 
i cern since that about them. Yet by those frequent 
' clamours, we were all kept with some kind of appre- 
hensions constantly upon us ; and if any died sud- 
denly, or if the spotted fevers at any time increased, 
we were presently alarmed ; much more if the number 
jj of the Plague increased ; for to the end of the year, 
I there were always between two and three hundred of 
■ the Plague. On any of these occasions, I say, we 
were alarmed anew. 

Those who remember the City of London before 
I \ the Fire, must remember, that there was then no such 
i place as that we now call Newgate Market ; but in 
I the middle of the street, which is now called Blow- 
1 bladder-street,* and which had its name from the 
' butchers, who used to kill and dress their sheep 

* Blow-bladder-street was the old name of the oblique avenue 
j| connecting the west-end of Cheapside with Newgate-street, and 
i' ending at St. Martin's-le-Grand. 



330 MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 

there, (aud who, it seems had a custom to blow up 
their meat with pipes to make it look thicker and 
fatter than it was, and were punished there for it by 
the Lord Mayor,) I say, from the end of the street 
towards Newgate, there stood two long rows of 
Shambles for the selling meat. 

It was in those Shambles, that two persons falling 
down dead, as they were bming meat, gave rise to a 
rumour that the meat was all infected, which, though 
it might affright the people, and spoiled the market 
for two or three days, yet it appeared plainly after- 
wards, that there was nothing of truth in the sug- 
gestion: but nobody can account for the possession 
of fear when it takes hold of the mind. 

However, it pleased God, by the continuing of the 
mnter weather, so to restore the health of the City, 
that by February following [1665-6], we reckoned 
the Distemper quite ceased, and then we were not so 
easily frighted again. ^ 

There was still a question among the learned, and 
which at first perplexed the people a little, — and 
that was in what manner to purge the houses and 
goods where the Plague had been, and how to render 
them habitable again, which had been left empty 
during the time of the Plague, iibundance of per- 
fumes and preparations were prescribed by physi- 
cians, some of one kind, and some of another, in 
which the people who listened to them put them- 
selres to a great, and indeed, in my opinion, to an 
unnecessary expense ; and the poorer people, who 
only set open their windows night and day, burnt 
brimstone, pitch, and gunpowder, and such things in 
their rooms, did as well as the best ; nay, the eager 

The weather [in February] says Lord Clarendon, " was as it 
could be wished, deep snows and terrible frost, which very probably 
stopped the spreading of the Infection." 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



331 



people, who, as I said above, came home in haste, and 
at all hazards, found little or no inconyenience in 
theu' houses, nor in their goods, and did little or 
nothing to them. 

However, in general, prudent cautious people did 
enter into some measures for airuig and sweetening 
their houses, and burnt perfumes, incense, benjamin, 
resin, and sulphur, in their rooms close shut up, and 
then let the air carry it all out with a blast of gun- 
powder. Others caused large fires to be made all 
day and all night, for several days and nights ; by 
the same token that two or three were pleased to set 
their houses on fire, and so effectually sweetened 
them by burning them down to the ground ; as par- 
ticularly one at Ratcliff, one in Holbom, and one at 
Westminster, besides two or three that were set on 
fire ; but the fire was happily got out again before it 
went far enough to burn down the houses ; and one 
citizen's servant, I think it was in Thames-street, 
carried so much gunpowder into his master's house, 
for clearing it of the Infection, and managed it so 
foolishly, that he blew up part of the roof of the 
house. But the time was not fully come that the 
City was to be purged with fire ; nor was it far off, 
for within nine months more I saw it all lying in 
ashes ; when, as some of our quacking philosophers 
pretend, the seeds of the Plague were entirely 
destroyed, and not before ; — a Notion too ridiculous 
to speak of here, since, had the Seeds of the Plague 
remained in the houses, not to be destroyed but by 
fire^ how has it been that they have not since broken 
out ? Seeing that all those buildings in the Suburbs 
and Liberties, all in the great parishes of Stepney, 
Whitechapel, Aldgate, Bishop sgate, Shoreditch, 
Cripplegate, and St. Giles, where the Fire never 
came, and where the Plague raged with the greatest 



332 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



violence, remain still in the same condition tliev were 
in before. 

But to leave these things just as I found them, it 
was certahi that those people who were more than 
ordinarily cautious of their health, did take particular 
directions for what they called Seasoning of their 
Houses, and abundance of costly things were con- 
sumed on that account; which I cannot but say, not 
only seasoned those houses, as they desired^ but 
filled the air with very grateful and wholesome smells, 
which others had the share of the benefit of, as well 
as those who were at the expenses of them. 

And yet after all, though the poor came to town 
veiy precipitantly, as I have said^ yet I must say 
the rich made no such haste; the men of business 
indeed, came up, but many of them did not bring 
their families to town till the spring came on, and 
that they saw reason to depend upon it, that the 
Plague would not return. 

The Com^t, indeed, came up soon after Christmas, 
but the nobility and gentry, except such as depended 
upon, and had employment mider, the administration, 
did not come so soon.* 



* Lord Clarendon (in the Continuation'^ of his "Life/' be- 
fore referred to, p. 326,) states that the King came from Oxford to 
Hampton Court towards the end of February ; " and then, with 
his customary incorrectness, he says, *' the next week after his 
Majesty came thither, the number of those who died of the Plague 
in the City decreased a thousand," — "and after a fortnight, or 
three weeks stay there, he resolved to go to Whitehall, when there 
died about fifteen hundred in the week, and when there was not in 
a day seen a coach in the streets, but those which came in his 
Majesty's train ! '' "We learu, however, from the Bills of Mor- 
tality, that during the first three months of the year 1666, there 
was a single week only (in January) when the number of deaths 
of all diseases, amounted to so many as three hundred. — Again (in 
respect to the king's arrival), Pepys says, under the date of January 
the 31st, — " To Whitehall, and to my great joy, people begin to 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



I should haye taken notice here^ that notwith- 
standing the violence of the Plague in London, and 
in other places, vet it was very observable, that it 
was never on board the Fleet ; * and yet, for some 
time, there was a strange press in the river, and even 
in the streets for seamen to man the Fleet : but that 
was in the beginning of the year, when the Plague 
was scarce begun, and not at all come down to that 
part of the City where they usually press for seamen ; 
and though a war with the Dutch was not at all 
grateful to the people at that time, and the seamen 
went vrith a kind of reluctancy into the service, and 
many complained of being dragged into it by force, 
yet it proved in the event a happy violence to several 
of them, who had probably perished in the general 
calamity, and who, after the summer service was 
over, though they had cause to lament the desola- 



bustleup and down there, the king holding his resolution to be in 
town to morrow, and hath good encouragement, blessed be God ! to 
do so, the Plague being decreased this week to 56, and the total to 
227." On the 2nd of February he wrote : — " My Lord Sandwich 
is come to town with the king and duke.'' It is probable, that the 
king resided at Hampton Court during a fortnight or so, afterwards ; 
but the Court was very soon re-established at Whitehall : the 
Queen and her Ladies were all there, as Pepys informs us, on the 
18 th of February. 

The confidence of the people increased with the return of the 
Court, and the town, as Lord Clarendon states with more truth than 
before, *^ every day filled marvellously. So that before the end of 
March, the streets were as full, the Exchange as much crowded, and 
the people in all places as numerous, as they had ever been seen, 
few persons missing any of their acquaintance when they returned, 
not many of wealth or quality or of much conversation being dead ; 
yet some of either sort there were." 

* In the Harleian Library is a Copy of an Order of a Court 
Martial, inhibiting all inferior ofScers of the Fleet to permit their 
I men to go ashore, or to press men from the Colliers returning 
1 from London, for fear of the Plague. Signed by the Earl of Sand- 
I wich, 19 Aug. 1665. British M^iseum : Harl. MSS. No. 1247, 
art. 29. 



334 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



tion of their families, of whom, when thev came 
back, many were in their graves ; yet they had 
room to be thankful that they themselves were 
carried out of the reach of it, though so much against 
their wills. Yie indeed had a hot war with the 
Dutch that year, and one very great engagement at 
sea, in which the Dutch were worsted ; but we lost 
a great many men, and some ships. But, as I 
observed, the Plague was not in the Fleet, and when 
they came to lay up the ships in the river, the violent 
part of it began to abate. 

I would be glad, if I could close the account of 
this melancholy Year with some particular Examples 
historically; I mean of the Thankfulness to God our 
Preserver, for our being dehvered from this dreadful 
calamity. Cei-tainly, the circumstances of the 
Deliverance, as well as the terrible enemy we were 
dehvered from, called upon the whole nation for it; 
the circumstances of the Dehverance were indeed 
very remarkable, as I have in part mentioned already, 
and particularly the dreadful condition which we 
were all in when we were, to the surprise of the 
whole tovm, made joyful with the hope of a stop of 
the Infection. 

Nothing but the immediate Finger of God, nothing 
but Omnipotent Power, could have done it ! The 
Contagion despised all medicine. Death raged in 
eveiy corner ; and had it gone on as it did then, a 
few weeks more would have cleared the town of all, 
and every thing that had a Soul. Men everywhere 
began to despair ; every heart failed them for fear : 
people were made desperate through the anguish of 
their souls ; and the terrors of Death sat in the very 
faces and countenances of the People. 

In that very moment, when we might very well 
say, — " Vain was the help of Alan " — I say, in that 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



335 



very moment, it pleased God, with a most agreeable 
surprise, to cause the fury of it to abate, even of 
itself, and the malignity declining, as I have said, 
though infinite numbers were sick, yet fewer died ; 
and the very first week's bill decreased one thousand 
eight hundred and forty-three — a vast number 
indeed ! 

It is impossible to express the change that appeared 
in the very countenances of the people that Thursday 
morning, when the weekly Bill came out : it might 
have been perceived in their countenances that a 
secret surprise and smile of joy sat on everybody's 
face; they shook one another by the hands in the 
streets, who would hardly go on the same side of 
the way with one another before ! Where the streets 
were not too broad, they would open their windows 
and call from one house to another, and ask '^how 
they did," and if they "had heard the good News, 
I that the Plague was abated." Some would return, 
when they said, ''good News," and ask, '' What 
good Neios ? " — and when they answered that the 
Plague was abated, and the Bills decreased almost 
2000, they would cry out '' God be Praised;" and 
I would weep aloud for joy, telhng them they had 
j heard nothing of it. And such was the joy of the 
people, that it was, as it were. Life to them from the 
Grave. I could almost set down as many extra- 
; vagant things done in the excess of their joy, as of 
i their grief ; but that would be to lessen the value 
' of it. 

I must confess myself to have been very much 
dejected just before this happened ; for the prodi- 
; gious number that was taken sick the week or two 
before, besides those that died, was such, and the 
, lamentations were so great everywhere, that a man 
jj must have seemed to have acted even against his 



336 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



reason, if lie had so niucli as expected to escape: and 
as there was hardly a hous^ but niine in all my 
neighbourhood but what was infected; so, had it 
gone on, it would not have been long that there 
would have been any more neighbours to be infected. 
Indeed, it is hardly credible what dreadful havoc the 
last three weeks had made; for, if I might believe the 
person whose calculations I always found very well 
grounded, there were not less than 30,000 people 
dead, and near 100,000 fallen sick in the three weeks 
I speak of ; for the number that sickened was sur- 
prising: — indeed it was astonishing, and those whose 
courage upheld them all the time before, sunk under 
it now. 

In the middle of their distress, when the condition 
of the City of London was so truly calamitous, just 
then it pleased God, as it were by his immediate 
Hand, to disarm this enemy ; the poison was taken 
out of the sting: it was wonderful! Even the Phy- 
sicians themselves were surprised at it : wherever 
they visited, they found their patients better, either 
they had sweated kindly, or the tumom's were broke, 
or the carbuncles went doT^ii, and the inflammations 
round them changed colour, or the fever was gone, 
or the violent head-ach was assuaged, or some good 
symptom was in the case; so that in a few days, 
every body was recovering : whole families that were 
infected and down, that had ministers praying with 
them, and expected death every hour, were revived 
and healed, and none died at all out of them. 

Xor was this by any new Medicine found out, or 
new method of Cure discovered, or by any expe- 
rience in the operation, which the Physicians or Sur- 
geons attained to; but it was evidently from the 
secret invisible Hand of Him that had at first sent 
this disease as a Judgment upon us : and let the 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



337 



atheistic part of mankind call my saying what they 
please, it is no Enthusiasm. It was acknowledged at 
that time by all mankind. The disease was ener- 
yated, and its malignity spent, and let it proceed 
from whencesoeyer it will, let the Philosophers search 
for reasons in Nature to account for it by, and labour 

' as much as they will to lessen the Debt they owe to 
their Maker ; those Physicians who had the least 
share of religion in them, were obhged to acknow- 
ledge that it was all supernatural, that it was extra- 
ordinary, and that no account could be giyen of it ! 

If I should say, that this is a visible summons to 
us all to Thankfulness, especially we that were under 
the terror of its increase, perhaps it may be thought 
by some, after the sense of the thing was oyer, an 
officious canting of religious things, preaching a ser- 
mon instead of writing a histoiy; making myself a 
teacher instead of giving my obseryations of things : 

I and this restrains me Terj much from going on here, 
as I might otherwise do; — but if ten Lepers were 
healed, and but one returned to giye Thanks, I desire 

ij'to be as that one, and to be thankful for myself."^ 

I Nor will I deny, but there were abundance of 
People, who, to all appearance, were yery thankful 
at that time ; for their mouths were stopped, eyen 
ithe mouths of those whose hearts were not extraordi- 
nary long affected with it. But the impression was 
50 strong at that time, that it could not be resisted, — 

i no, not by the Worst of the people. 

, It was a common thing to meet people in the street, 

i :hat were strangers, and that we knew nothing at all 
3f, expressing their surprise. Going one day through 

* This allusion refers to St. Luke's Gospel, chap. xvii. verses 
2 — 19. " And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, 
umed back, and with a loud voice glorified God ! — And Jesus said, 

i I Were there not ten cleansed ? but where are the nine ? ' " 

V z 



338 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUE. 



Aldgate^ and a pretty many people being passing and 
repassing, there comes a man out of the end of the 
Minories, and looking a little up the street and down, 
he throws his hands abroad, — Loi'd, what an alte- 
ration is here ! ^Hiy, last week I came along here, 
and hardly anybody was to be seen:" another man^ 
I heard him, adds to his words, 'Tis all wonderful, 
'Tis all a dream." Blessed be God," says a third 
man, and let us give Thanks to him, for 'tis all his 
own doing. Human Help and human Skill was at an 
End." These were all strangers to one another : 
but such salutations as these were frequent in the 
street every day; and in spite of a loose behaviour, 
the very common People went along the streets, 
giving God Thanks for their Deliverance. 

It was now, as I said before, the People had cast 
off all apprehensions, and that too fast; indeed we 
were no more afraid now to pass by a man with a 
white cap upon his head, or with a cloth wrapped 
round his neck, or with his leg limping, occasioned 
by the sores in his groin, all which w^ere frightful to 
the last degree, but the week before; but now the 
street was full of them, and these poor recovering 
creatures, give them their due, appeared very sensible 
of their unexpected Deliverance; and I should wrong 
them very much, if I should not acknowledge, that 
I believe many of them were really thankful ; but I 
must own, that for the generality of the People it 
might too justly be said of them, as was said of the : 
Children of Israel, after their being delivered from 
the Host of Pharaoh, when they passed the Red Sea, 
and looked back, and saw the Egyptians overv/helmed 
in the water, viz., That They sang Ms Praisey hut ' 
they soon forgot his WorhsJ'^ \ 

I can go no farther here: — I should be counted 
censorious, and perhaps unjust, if I should enter into \ 



MEMOIRS OF THE PLAGUi^^ 339 

the unpieasing work of reflecting^ whatever Cause 
there was for it, upon the Unthankfulness and Return 
of all manner of Wickedness among us, which I was 
so much an eye-witness of myself. — I shall conclude 
the account of this calamitous Year, therefore, with a 
coarse hut sincere Stanza of my own, which I placed 
at the end of my ordinary memorandums, the same 
year they w^ere written : — 

A dreadful Plague in London was 

In the year sloe ty -five, 
Which swept an hundred thousand souls 

A way — yet I alive. 

H, F. 



APPENDIX. 



ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT PLAGUE OF 1665, 

FROM 

A MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN BY MR. WILLIAM BOGHURST. 
No. I. 

Among the Manuscripts formerly in the collection of 
Sir Hans Sloane, but now preserved in the British 
Museum^ is a Treatise on the Plague^ as it appeared in 
London, in 1665. It was drawn up by Mr. William 
BoGHURST, a medical practitioner, who resided in the me- 
tropolis during the whole period of the prevalence of the 
disease, and contains the result of his personal observations, 
for making which he appears to have had abundant oppor- 
tunities. That he was a man of some learning and ability 
may be concluded from his work, which is a thin quarto, 
(containing 170 pages, and divided into chapters,) fairly 
written as if prepared for the press ; although no part of it 
has hitherto been published, except a few extracts in a 
monthly journal in 1831. The greater portion of the 
work, relating to the medical treatment of the disease, is 
now become obsolete, and no longer interesting even to 
professional readers ; but the facts and remarks which it 
contains are still deserving of notice ; — and the more so, 
perhaps, on account of their immediate connexion with the 
events recorded in the preceding " Journal of the Plague 
Year." These are chiefly, if not entirely, comprised in 



342 APPENDIX. 

the ensuing passages : the arrangement of which has been 
somewhat altered from the order in which they appear in 
the Manuscript^ for the pui'pose of better connecting the 
subjects. The work is thus intituled : — 

AoL,uoypa(pLa : or an Experimental Relation of the 
Plague^ of what hath happened Remarqueable in the last 
Plague in the City of London : demonstrating its Genera- 
tion. Progresse, fore -running and subsequent Diseases and 
Accidents, Common Signes, good and evill, Meanes of 
Preservation, Method of Cure, generall and particular, with 
a Collection of choice and tried Medicines for Preservation 
and Cure, by the practicall Experience and Observation of 
William Boghurst, Apothecary in St. Giles's in the Fields. 
London, 1666/' 

In an address To the Reader^ Mr. Boghurst says, the 
Plague continued eighteen months, tvl. ffrom the ijd. of 
November, 1664, to the latter end of this May last past, 
1666 : " and he remarks, that he was the only person vrho 
had then written on the late Plague, from experience and 
observation. 

Among the " Signes, fore-shewing a Plague coming/" he 
enumerates that of Birds, ^vild-fowl, and wild beasts, 
leaving their accustomed places : few swallowes were seene 
in the yeares 1664 and 65." 

In the summer before the Plague, (in 1664,) there was 
such a multitude of flies that they lined the insides of 
houses \ and if any threads or strings did hang down in any 
place, they were presently thick set with flies like ropes 
of onions ; and swarms of ants covered the highways, that 
you might have taken up a handful at a time, both winged 
and creeping ants ; and such a multitude of croaking frogs 
in ditches, that you might have heard them before you saw 
them. — Also, the same summer, the small-pox was so rife 
in our parish, that betwixt the Church and the Pound in 



APPENDIX. 



343 



St. Giles's, which is not above six score paces, about forty 
families had the small-pox." 

" The Plague hath put itselfe forth in St. Gyles, St. Cle- 
ments, St. Paul's Covent Garden, and St. Martin's, this 3 
or 4 years, as I have been certainly informed by the people 
themselves that had it in their houses in these Parishes." 

Speaking of the " Evil Signs or Presages of the Plague/*' 
the writer notices the general symptoms of the Disease at 
some length : — " Among these were spots of different 
colours, hiccough, vomiting, carbuncles or buboes, short- 
ness of breath, and stoppage of urine, drowsiness and 
thirstiness, contraction of the jaws, and large and extended 
tumours." 

" This Plague was ushered in with seven months dry 
weather and westerly wdnds. It fell first upon the high- 
est grounds ; for our parish (viz. St. Giles's) is the highest 
I ground about London, and the best air, yet was first 
* infected. Highgate, Hampstead, and Acton, also, all 
shared in it.^' 

" The wind blowing westward so long together, (from 
before Christmas until July,) was the cause the Plague 
began first at the west end of the City, as at St. Giles's, 
and St. Martin's, Westminster. Afterwards, it gradually 
insinuated and crept down Holborn and the Strand, and 

! then into the City, and at last to the east end of the 
suburbs : so that it was half a year at the west end of the 

t City before the east end and Stepney were infected, which 
was about the middle of July. Southwark, being the 

: south suburb, was infected almost as soon as the west 

i end." 

t " The disease spread not altogether by contagion at first, 
nor began only at one place, and spread farther and farther, 
i| as an eating and spreading sore doth all over the body; 
|i| but fell upon several places of the City and suburbs like 



344 



APPENDIX. 



rain, even at the first, — as St. Gileses, St. Martin's, 
Chancery Lane, South wark, Houndsditch, and some places 
within the City, as at Proctors' Houses." 

" Almost all that caught the disease with fear, died with 
tokens in two or three days. About the beginning, most 
men got the disease with fuddling, surfeiting, over-heating 
themselves, and by disorderly living." 

" The Plague is a most acute disease, for though some 
dyed 8, 10, 12, or 20 dayes after they had been sicke, yet 
the greatest part dyed before 5 or 6 dayes, and in the sum- 
mer about half that were sicke dyed, but towards winter, 
3 parts in 4 lived ; but none dyed suddenly, as tho' stricken 
with lightning, or an apoplexy, as authors write in several 
countries, and Diemerbroek seemes to believe ; but I saw 
none dye under 20 or 24 hours." 

" Tokens appeared not much till about the middle of 
■June, and carbuncles, not till the latter end of July, but 
were very rife in the fall, about September and October, 
and seized most on old people, adust, choleric, and melan- 
choly people, and generally on diy and lean bodies ; 
children had none. If very hot weather followed a shower 
of rain, the disease increased." 

" Many people, after a violent sweat, or taking a strong 
cordial, presently had the tokens come out, so that every 
nurse could say ^ cochineal was a fine thing to bring out 
the tokens.' " 

" Authors speak of several kinds of Plagues, which took 
only children, others maids, others young people under 
thirty ; but this of ours took all sorts : yet it fell not very 
thick upon old people till about the middle or slack of the 
disease, and most in the decrease and declining of the 
disease. — Old people that had the disease, many of them 
were not sick at all ; but they that were sick almost ail 
died. I had one patient four-score and six years old." 



APPENDIX. 



345 



"Though all sorts of people dyed very thicke, both 
young and old, rich and poore, healthy and unhealthy, 
strong and weake, men and women, of all constitutions, of 
all tempers and complexions, of all professions and places^ 
of all religions, of all conditions, good and bad ; — yet as far 
as I could discerne the difference of the two, more of the 
good dyed than of the bad, more men than women, and 
, more of dull complexions than of faire." 
I "Strength of constitution of body was no protection 
' against the disease nor death, for it made the hottest assault 
upon strong bodies, and determined soonest, for they dyed 
sooner than people of weaker constitutions, and men dyed 
; sooner than women. All that I saw that were let blood 
in the disease, if they had been sick two, three, four, 
five days, or more, died the same day. 

" Those that married in the heat of this disease, (if they 
i had not had it before), almost all fell into it in a week or 
^' a fortnight after, both in City and country, of which most 
died, especially the men. 

" Teeming women fared miserably in the disease ; not 
that they were more subject to catch the disease than 

i others, but when they had it, scarce one in forty lived. 
I Many women giving suck freed themselves of the Plague 
i by their children sucking it from them ; but some con- 
! tinned well for some days, sometimes weeks, and then fell 
into the disease after their children were dead." 

" Black men of thin and lean constitutions were heavy 
laden with this disease and died, all that I saw, in two or 
three days ; and most of them thick with black tokens. 
People of the best complexions and merry dispositions 
, had least of the disease ; and if they had it fared the best 
^ I under it." 

[ " One friend growing melancholy for another was one 
j main cause of its going through a family, especially when 



346 



APPENDIX. 



they were shut up, which bred a sad apprehension and i 
consternation on their spirits ; especially being shut up in 
dark cellars*'' — As soon as any house is infected, all the 
sound people should be had out of it, and not shut up 
therein to be murdered! " 

" Of all the common hackney prostitutes of Lutener's 
Lane, Dog Yard, Cross Lane, Baldwin's Gardens, Hatton 
Grarden, and other places, the common criers of oranges, 
oysters, fruit, &c. ; all the impudent, drunken, drabbing 
bayles and fellows, and many others of the Rouge Route, 
there are but few missing." 

Those that dye of the Plague, dye a very easy death 
generally : first, because it was speedy ; secondly, because 
they died without convulsions. They did but of a sudden 
fetch their breath a little thick and short, and were pre- 
sently gone.-— just as you squeeze wind out of a bladder- 
So that I have heard some say, ^ How much am I bound to 
God, who takes me away by such an easy death ! ' And 
commonly they say they are not sicke when Death is just 
at hand, and talke familiarly with you when they are ready 
to dye, and expect no other themselves." 

" This year in which the Plague hath raged so much, no l| 
alteration nor change appeared in any element, vegetable, ^' 
or animal, besides the body of man, except only the season 
of the year and the winds j the Spring being continual dry, 
for six or seven months together, there being no rain at' all ^ 
but a little sprinkling shower or two about the latter end ' 
of April, which caused such a pitiful crop of hay in the 
Spring : in the Autumn there was a pretty good crop ; but 
all other things kept their common integrity, and all sorts 
of fruit, as Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums, Grapes, Melons, 
Cucumbers, Pumpions, Cabbage, Mulberries, Raspberries^ 
Strawberries : all roots, as Parsneps, Carrots, Turnips ; all 
flowers, all medicinal simples, &c., were as plentiful, large, 



APPENDIX. 347 

ii 

^jfair, and wholesome, and all grain as plentiful and good, as 
lever. All Kine, Cattle, Horses, Sheep, Swine, Dogs, wild 
I Iheasts and tame, as healthful, strong to labour, and whole- 
.jSome to eat, as ever they were in any year ; though many 
(I peddling writers have undertaken to find fault with all 
I [these things." — " Cats, Dogs, Oxen, Horses, Sheep, Hogs, 
I, I Conies, all Wild Beasts ; Hens, Geese, Pigeons, Turkeys, 
i|&c., and all Wild-fowl, were free from Infection." 
j'j " Though at first I was much baffled in giving judgment, 
hyet afterwards by use and long observation of the parti- 
' culars I arrived at a greater skill ; for I rendered myself 
familiar with the disease, knowing that the means to do 
any good must be not to be fearful : — wherefore, I com- 
imonly dressed forty sores in a day, held the pulse of 
r,' patients sweating in their beds half a quarter of an hour 
together, let blood, administered clysters to the sick, held 
them up in their beds, to keep them from strangling and 
;j choaking, half an hour together commonly, and suffered 
; their breathing in my face several times when they were 
dying ; eat and drank with them, especially those that had 
sores, sat down by their bed-sides and upon their beds, 
discoursing with them an hour together. If I had time, I 
I J stayed by them to see them die, and see the manner of 
i their death, and closed up their mouth and eyes ; for they 
1 died with their mouth and eyes very much open and staring. 
I Then if people had nobody to help them, (for help was 
scarce at such a time and place,) I helped to lay them 
forth out of the bed, and afterwards into the Coffin ; and 
; last of all, accompanied them to the Ground." 

Speaking of the symptoms of the Plague, Mr. Boghurst 
notices a great thirst, with a sense of suffocation, and 
, weight on the chest — "almost like those who are troubled 
( with the Night Mare. I remember," he says, but one 
I patient that lived under any degree of it, and she lived 



348 



APPENDIX. 



indeed beyond expectation, for she stammered so that you 
could not understand what she said, with a very great 
stoppage and oppression at the breast, and other evill signes. 
I caused her to try a conclusion which came into my head : 
viz. I made her lay a great mastive puppy dogge upon her 
breast two or three hours together, and made her drink 
Dill, Pennyroyal, Fennel, and Anniseed boyld in Posset- 
drink, and sometimes Anniseed-water, for she was a fat 
woman and would bear it : and by degrees all her stopping 
and lisping left her, and she crept up again, — and is very 
well at this day." 

In the chapter on " Prophylactics, or preservative , 
means," Mr. Boghurst, in reference to precautions used 
with regard to letters, says — " Some would sift them in a 
sieve, some wash them first in water, and then dry them 
at the fire, some air them at the top of a house, a hedge, or 
a pole, two or three days before they opened them ; some 
would lay them between two cold stones two or three 
days, some set them before the fire like a toast. Some would 
not receive them but on a long pole : a countryman deli- 
vered one thus to my wife, at the shop door, because he 
would not venture near her." 

" People in the country were so apprehensive of danger 
from every thing- coming from London, that they kept .; 
watch and ward, as if they would have kept the wind out ) 
of towns ; forcing some to lie and die in ditches and under > 
hedges and trees, and to lie unburied for a prey to Dogs 
and Fowls of the air. At Gloucester, the Mayor of the 
city, being an apothecary, would not sufi'er pipes of wine 
to be brought into the city that came from London ; but 
being brought in, would have had them drawn through the 
river, to wash off the Infection ; but at last it was agreed 
they should be excused by pouring water on them : so the 
Vintner's man took a dish of water and poured on them, ' 



APPENDIX. 



349 



^and sprinkled each vessel a litUe^ and so made them 
•wholesome, notwithstanding they had come a hundred 
-miles in the air^ and it had rained on them much by the 

" Great doubting and disputing there is in the world, 
Vhether the Plague be infectious or catching or not : 
"because some think if it were infectious it would infect all, 
■*s the fire heats, and heats all it comes near ; but the 
':?lagne leaves as many as it takes : thus they are gravelled 
"'it such arguments, and cannot solve their doubts ; and 

V an Helmont thinks all people catch by fear ; and gene- 
■"ally every one is apt to judge by his own experience, for 

f they have been in never so little danger and yet have 
♦^scaped without catching it, they presently think the 
-iisease not infectious. And if any one may draw his con- 
' ' lusion from this, I have as much reason almost as any to 
: :hink it is not infectious, having passed through a multi- 
r^nde of continual dangers, cum mmmo vitw periculo, being 
i-mployed eveiy day till ten o'clock at night, out of one 
• -.ouse into another, dressing sores, and being always in the 
: -reath and sweat of patients, without catching the disease 

f any, through God's protection ; and so did many Xurses 

i '^aat were in the like danger. Yet I count it to be the 

t iiost subtle, infectious disease of any, and that all catch it 

i iot by fear neither, (though this doth much, as Helmont 

I ^links,) for then children and confident people would not 

5 jiave the disease ; but we see many of them also have it, 

t ind children especially most of any."* 

t\ 

, * The account -which Mr. Boghurst gives of the extent of hisprac- 
^l ice in the Plague is somevrhat corroborated hv the following Adver- 
se '?5ement, which has been copied from the '* Intelligencer" Xews- 

]iper, (Xo. 59,) for the 31st of July, 1665. 
^ I Whereas, "\Vm. Boghurst, Apothecary, at the White Hart in 
•i]t. Giles's in the Fields, hath administered a long time to such as 
- i^-e been infected witb the Plague, to the number of 40, 50, or 60 



350 ^ APPENDIX. 

" The summer following the Plague, very few flies, frogs, 
and such like, appeared." 

The Plague generally begins at the w^est and the south- 
west parts of toTOS and cities, commencing in little, low, 
poor houses." 

Independently of the above treatise, Mr. Boghurst was 
the author of an English poem entitled Londinologia, 
sive Londini Encomium : The Antiquities and Excel- 
lencyes of London," — ^which is preserved in MS. in the 
British Museum. See Ayscough's Cat. of MSS. No. 908, 
fol. 72 — 84. From a notice appended to those verses, it 
appears that Mr. Boghurst was a native of Ditton, in Kent, 
and that he died September 2nd, 1685, aged 54 ; and was 
conveyed from London, and buried in the churchyard at 
Ditton, in accordance with his own directions. 

patients a day, with wonderful success, by God's blessing upon cer- 
tain excellent medicines which he hath, as a Water, a Lozenge, &c. 
Also an Electuary Antidote, of but 8c?. the oz. price. This is to 
notify that the said Boghurst is willing to attend any person infected 
and desiring his attendance, either in City, Suburbs, or Country, 
upon reasonable terras, and that the remedies above mentioned are 
to be had at his house, or shop, at the White Hart aforesaid. 



I 



APPENDIX. 



351 



No. II. 



A TABLE OF THE CHRISTENINGS AND MORTALITY 
For the Year 1665.^ 



Weeks. 


Days of the 
Month. 


ings. 


Burials. 


Plague. 


X dlioLICo 




Dec. 20- 


-27 


229 


291 


I 


I 


2 


Jan. 


3 


239 


349 








3 


— 


10 


235 


394 





Q 


4 


— 


17 


223 


415 








5 


— 


24 


237 


474 








Q 





31 


216 


409 








7 


Feb. 


7 


221 


393 








8 





1*4 


224 


462 


1 


X 


9 


— 


21 


232 


393 





Q 


10 





28 


233 


396 


Q 


Q 




Mar. 


7 


236 


441 


Q 





12 





14 


236 


433 


Q 


Q 




— 


21 


221 


363 


Q 


Q 






28 


238 


ODD 


Q 


n 
u 


1 ^ 


Apr. 


4 


242 


344 


Q 


U 


1 R 




11 




oo^ 


A 

V 


A 
U 


17 




18 


237 


344 








18 




25 


229 


398 


2 


1 


19 


May 


2 


237 


388 








20 




9 


211 


347 


9 


4 


21 




16 


227 


353 


3 


2 


• 22 




23 


231 


385 


14 


3 


23 




30 


229 


400 


17 


5 


24 


June 


6 


234 


405 


43 


7 


25 




13 


206 


558 


112 


12 


26 




20 


204 


615 


168 


19 


27 




27 


199 


684 


267 


20 


28 


July 


4 


207 


1006 


470 


33 



* It must be observed, that the Yearly Bill for 1665 com- 
mences on the 20th of Decerpber, 1664, and ends on the 19th of 
t December, 1665, 



i 



352 



APPENDIX. 



Weeks. 


Days of the 
Montli. 


Cliristeii- 
mgs. 


Burials. 


Plague. 


Parislies 


29 


July 


11 


197 


1268 


725 


40 


30 


— 


18 


194 


1761 


1089 


54 


31 


— 


25 


193 


2785 


1843 


68 


32 


Aug. 


1 


215 


3014 


2010 


73 


33 


8 


178 


4030 


2817 


86 


34 


— 


15 


166 


5319 


3880 


96 


35 


— 


22 


171 


5568 


4237 


103 


36 


— 


29 


169 


7496 


6102 


113 


37 


Sept. 


5 


167 


8252 


6988 


118 


38 


— 


12 


168 


7690 


6544 


119 


39 


— 


19 


176 


8297 


75L65 


126 


40 


— 


26 


146 


6460 


5533 


123 


41 


Oct. 


3 


142 


5720 


4929 


124 


42 


— 


10 


141 


5068 


4327 


126 


43 


— 


17 


147 


3219 


2665 


114 


44 


— 


24 


104 


1806 


1421 


104 


45 




31 


104 


1388 


1031 


97 


46 


Nov, 


7 


95 


1787 


1414 


110 


47 




14 


113 


1359 


1050 


99 


48 




21 


108 


905 


652 


84 


49 




28 


112 


544 


333 


60 


50 


Dec. 


5 


123 


428 


210 


48 


51 




12 


133 


442 


243 


57 


52 




19 


147 1 


525 


281 


68 



r Christened .... 9,967 

' TotaW Buried 97,306 

[ Whereof of the Plague . . 68,596 




APPENDIX. 



353 



No. III. 



THE RETURNS OF THE NUMBERS THAT FELL BY 
THE PLAGUE, 

AS GIVEN IN THE BILLS OF MORTALITY, 

From the Year 1603 to 1679. 





Died of the 




Died of the 


Years. 


Plague. 


Years. 


Plague. 


1603 


. 30,561 


1629 . 





1604 


. . 896 


1630 


. . 1317 


1605 


444 


1631 


274 


1606 


. . 2124 


1632 


. . 8 


1607 . 


. 2352 


1633 





1608 


. . 2262 


1634 


. . 1 


1609 . 


. 4240 


1635 





1610 


. . 1803 


1636 


. . 10,400 


1611 


627 


1637 . 


. 3082 


1612 


. . 64 


1638 


. . 363 


1613 . 


16 


1639 . 


314 


1614 


. . 22 


1640 


. . 1450 


1615 . 


37 


1641 


. 3067 


1616 


. . 9 


1642 


. . 1824 


1617 . 


6 


1643 


996 


1618 


... 18 


1644 


, . 1492 


1619 . 


9 


1645 . 


. 1871 


1620 


. . 2 


1646 


. . 2436 


1621 


11 


1647 . 


. 3597 


1622 


. . 16 


1648 


. . 611 


1623 . 


17 


1649 . 


67 


. 1624 


. . 


1650 


. . 15 


1625 


. 35,417 


1651 


23 


1 '.626 


. . 134 


1652 


. . 16 


;.627 . 


4 


1653 


6 


:628 


. . 3 


1654 


. . 16 



A A 



i 



354 



APPENDIX. 





Died of the 




Died of the 


Years. 


Plague. 


Years. 


Plague. 


1655 . 


9 


1668 


. 14 


1656 


. . 6 


1669 


. . 3 


1657 . 


4 


1670 


. 


1658 


. . 14 


1671 


. . 5 


1659 . 


36 


1672 


. 5 


1660 


. . 14 


1673 


. . 5 


1661 . 


20 


1674 


. 3 


1662 


. . 12 


1675 


. . 1 


1663 . 


. . 9 


1676 


. 2 


1664 


. . 6 


1677 


. . 2 


1665 


. 68,596 


1678 


. 5 


1666 


. . . 1998 


1679* . 


. . 2 


1667 . 


, . 35 







* This is the last year in which any Deaths by the Plague are 
recorded to have occurred in the Bills of Mortality ; and after the 
year 1704 all mention of that Disease was omitted from the Bills. 



No. IV. 

THE LORD MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION. 



London^ Sejot. 2 [1665]. 

BY THE MAYOR. 

Whereas it hath pleased God to visit us with a sad and i 
sore Judgment, which yet remaineth increasing and heavy J 
upon us ; and it being well pleasing to Almighty God, 
that all lawful means be used for preventing the spreading 
thereof, his extraordinary Blessing oftentimes attend- 
ing thereupon ; amongst those outward means that 
may be used, that of Fire having been found veiy success- 
ful, as by the experience of former ages, and of later days 
in other countries, as also being generally approved of by 
all judicious persons, to be a potent and effectual means 



APPENDIX. 



355 



of correcting and purifying the air: It is therefore agreed 
upon by and with the advice of his Grace the Duke of 
Albemarle, and the Aldermen, my Brethren, That all per- 
sons whatsoever, inhabiting the City of London and Liber- 
■ ties thereof; be required, as they tender their o^^i welfares, 
effectually to put in execution such directions as hereafter 
1 are expressed. Wherefore all persons, inhabiting as afore- 
Said, are hereby in his Majesty's name, straightly charged 
and commanded to furnish themselves with sufficient 
quantities of firing, to wit, of Sea-coal, or any other com- 
bustible matter, to maintain and continue Fire burning 
constantly for three whole Days, and three whole Nights : 
and in the mean time all extraordinary concourse of 
People, and employment of Carrs, and whatever else may 
be troublesome in the Streets, is to be forborne. And fer- 
: vent prayers to be offered up to the Throne of Grace, for a 
Blessing upon the means. Every six houses on each side 
the way, which will be twelve houses, are to joyn together 
to provide firing for three whole Nights and three whole 
Days, to be made in one great Fire before the door of the 
middlemost Inhabitant ; and one or more persons to be 
appointed to keep the Fire constantly burning, without 
, suffering the same to be extinguished or go out all the time 
; 1 aforesaid ; and this to be observed in all Streets, Courts, 
^ Lanes, and Alleys ; and great care to be taken where the 
j Streets, Courts, Lanes, and Alleys are narrow, that the 
Fires may be made of proportionable bigness, that so ne 
; damage may ensue to the Houses. It is supposed that one 
I Load of Sea-coal will maintain a fire for three days and 
= three nights, by first kindling two Bushels, and afterwards 
i a Bushel at a time laid on to continue the fire, whereby 
I six bushels will maintain fire for twenty-four hours, and 
I consequently eighteen Bushels (which is a Load) will be 
K sufficient for three Days and three Nights, which will not 



356 



APPENDIX. 



amount to above eighteen-pence or two shillings for each 
House^ the three whole Days and Nights ; toward which 
charge all the Inhabitants that pay two-pence a week to 
the Poor, and upwards, are to be charged 'with a certain 
Tax. if they will not furnish the money Toluntarily. And 
that none may avoid their share of this so necessary a 
charge, by their absence out of town, the Deputies, Common 
Councilmen and Church- war dens of each Parish are 
requh-ed to disburse the money ; and the Justices will take 
care that a certain Rate be imposed upon such as are 
absent, or shall refuse to do it voluntarily, for the repay- 
ment of those that shall disburse any money. The Minis- 
ters of eveiy Parish are desired to exhort the people to be 
forward in so hopeful a means, if God shall please to grant 
his Blessing thereupon. And that notice be given, that 
upon Tuesday the fifth of September, at eight of the clock 
at night, the Fires are to be kindled in all Streets, Courts, 
Lanes, and Alleys, of the City and Suburbs thereof; and 
all officers whatsoever of the several Wards and Parishes, 
as also the several Inhabitants, are to take special care for 
the punctual performance hereof, as they will answer their 
neglect at their utmost periL 

Sir John Lawrence was Lord Mayor at the time of 
issuing the above Proclamation ; and he was succeeded in 
the i\Iayoralty, on the 30th of September, by Sir Thomas 
Bludworth ; the memorable personage to whose incapacity 
and want of moral courage at the commencement of the 
Great Fire of 1666, the -v^Titers of the time have attributed 
the extensive spreading of that conflagration. 



APPENDIX. 



357 



No. V. 

OPINION OF DR. HODGES ON THE VIRTUES OF SACK. 

De Foe, in the latter part of his "Memoirs," (vide 
p. 326^ of this edition,) has noticed the case of a Physician 
whose constant use of remedial Cordials occasioned him 
to become a confirmed Sot. Most probably the person 
meant was Dr. Hodges, the author of " Loimologia," from 
whose work De Foe derived so much of his information, 
and who, from pecuniary embarrassments, became a pri- 
soner in Ludgate, and died in confinement. Like Sir 
John Falstafi^, the Doctor found great virtue in Sack; 
and he has thus stated his high opinion of its excellence 
in the account of his method of practice during the 
Contagion. 

" But before I proceed further, gratitude obliges me to 
do justice to the virtues of SacJc^ as it deservedly is ranked 
amongst the principal antidotes, whether it be drunk by 
itself or impregnated with wormwood, angelica, &c., for I 
have never yet met with anything so agreeable to the 
nerves and spirits in all my experience. That which is 
best is middle-aged, neat, fine, bright, racy, and of a walnut 
j flavour ; and it is certainly true that during the late fatal 
1 times both the infected and the well found vast benefit 
' from it, unless they who used it too intemperatively : 
many indeed medicated it with various alexipharmic 
1= simples." 

I Again, in noticing Tobacco as a prophylactic. Dr. Hodges 

I I says, — "I must confess at uncertainties about it; though 
'as to myself, I am its professed enemy, and was accus- 
tomed to supply its place as an antidote with Sack." He 



358 



APPENDIX. 



next mentions Amulets as worn against Infection ; and, 
after characterising them as Baubles, proceeds to give 
directions " more conformable to reason and the rules of 
Medicine," concluding his discourse with the subjoined 
account of his o\YTi practice. 

" I think it not amiss to recite the means which I used 
to preserve myself from the Infection, during the continual 
course of my business among the sick. 

"As soon as I rose in the morning early, I took the 
quantity of a Nutmeg of the Anti-pestilential Electuary ; 
then, after the dispatch of private concerns in my family, 
I ventured into a large room where crowds of Citizens used 
to be waiting for me ; and there I commonly spent two or 
three hours, as in an Hospital, examining the several con- 
ditions and circumstances of all who came thither ; some 
of which had Ulcers yet uncured, and others came to be 
advised under the first symptoms of seizure ; all which I 
endeavoured to dispatch \\\ih. all possible care to their 
various exigencies. 

" As soon as this crowd could be discharged, I judged 
it not proper to go abroad fasting, and therefore got my 
Breakfast. After which, till dinner-time, I visited the sick 
at their Houses; where, upon entering their Houses, I 
immediately had burnt some proper thing upon coals, and [ 
also kept in my mouth some Lozenges all the while I was ' 
examining them. But they are in a mistake who report 
that Physicians used on such occasions very hot things ; as 
Myrrh, Zedoary, Angelica, Ginger, &c., for many, deceived 
thereby, raised Inflammations upon their Tonsils, and 
greatly endangered their Lungs. 

" I further took care not to go into the Rooms of the sick 
when I sweated, or were short-breathed with walking ; and 
kept my mind as composed as possible, being sufficiently 
warned by such, who had grievously suffered by uneasiness 



APPENDIX. 



359 



in that respect. After some hours visiting in this manner, 



Before Dinner I always drank a Glass of Sack to warm 
the Stomach, refresh the spirits, and dissipate any beginning 
lodgment of the Infection. I chose jMeats for my table 
that yielded an easy and generous nourishment, roasted 
before boiled, and Pickles not only suitable to the Meats, 
but to the nature of the Distemper ; and indeed in this 
melancholy time, the City greatly abounded with variety 
of all good things of that nature. I seldom likewise rose 
from Dinner without drinking more Wine. After this I 
had always many Persons come for advice ; and as soon 
as I could dispatch them, I again visited till eight or nine 
at night, and then concluded the evening at home, by 
drinking to cheerfulness of my old favourite Liquor, which 
encouraged sleep and an easy breathing through the pores 
all night. But if, in the day-time, I found the least 
I approaches of the Infection upon me, as by giddiness, 
loathing at stomach, and faintness, I immediately had re* 
course to a glass of this Wine, which easily drove these 
beginning disorders away by Transpiration. In the whole 
1, course of the Infection I found myself ill but Uviee ; but 
1 i was soon again cleared of its approaches by these means, 
' and by the help of such Antidotes as I kept always by 
me." — See " Loimologia," Dr. Quincey's translation, pp. 



The following traditionary anecdote, which has an 
^ I immediate reference to De Foe's story of the Blind Piper, 
^ jjis derived from the London Magazine for April, 1820: 
fjlit was addressed to the Editor by a Correspondent ; 




217—226. 



No. VI. 



THE BAG-PIPER IN TOTTENHAM-COURT ROAD. 



360 



APPENDIX. 



but the original source of the information has not been 
ascertained. 

" I forward you a rather remarkable anecdote relative 
to a Statue, the original work of the famous Caius Gabriel 
Gibber, which has, for many years, occupied a site in a 
garden on the Terrace in Tottenham- Court Road. 

" The Statue in question is executed in a fine free-stone, 
representing a Bag-piper in a sitting posture, with his dog 
and keg of liquor by his side ; the latter of which stands 
upon a neat stone pedestal. — The following singular 
history is attached to its original execution. 

" During the Great Plague of London, carts were sent 
round the City each night, the drivers of which rung a 
bell, as intimation for every house to bring out its dead. 
The bodies were then thrown promiscuously into the 
cart, and conveyed to a little distance in the environs, 
where deep ditches were dug, into which they were 
deposited. 

" The Piper (as represented in the Statue) had his con- 
stant stand at the bottom of Holbom, near St. Andrew's 
Church. He became well known about the neighbourhood, 
and picked up a living from the passengers going that way, 
who generally threw him a few pence as the reward of 
his musical talent, A certain gentleman, who never failed 
in his generosity to the Piper, was surprised, on passing 
one day as usual, to miss him from his accustomed place : 
on enquiry, he found that the poor man had been taken ill, 
in consequence of a very singular accident. — On the joyful 
occasion of the arrival of one of his countrymen from the 
Highlands, the Piper had made too free with the contents 
of his keg : these so overpowered his faculties that he 
stretched himself out upon the steps of the Church, and 
fell fast asleep. Those were not times to sleep on Church 



APPENDIX. 



361 



steps with impunity. He was found in that situation when 
the Dead-cart went its round ; and the carter^ supposing 
of course, as the most likely thing in every way, that the 
man was dead, made no scruple to put his fork under the 
Piper's belt, and, with some assistance, hoisted him into 
his vehicle, which was nearly full, with the charitable in- 
tention that our Scotch musician should share the usual 
brief ceremonies of interment. The Piper's faithful dog 
protested against this seizure of his master, and attempted 
to prevent the unceremonious removal ; but failing of 
success, he fairly jumped into the cart after him, to the no 
small annoyance of the men, whom he would not suffer 
to come near the body : he farther took upon himself the 
office of chief-mourner, by setting up the most lamentable 
howling as they passed along. 

" The streets and roads by which they had to go, being 
very rough, the jolting of the Cart, added to the howling 
I of the dog, had soon the effect of awakening our drunken 
musician from his trance. It was dark, and the Piper, 
when he first recovered himself, could form no idea, either 
of his numerous companions, or of his conductors. In- 
stinctively, however, he felt about for his Pipes, and play- 
j ing up a merry Scotch tune, terrified, in no small measure, 
I the carters, who fancied they had got a legion of ghosts in 
their conveyance. A little time, however, put all to 
rights ; — ^lights were got ; and it turned out that the noisy 
corpse was the well-known living Piper, who was joyfully 
released from his awful and perilous situation. The poor 
1 man fell bodily ill after this unpleasant excursion ; and 
was relieved, during his malady, by his former benefactor; 
who, to perpetuate the remembrance of so wonderful an 
I escape, resolved, as soon as his patient had recovered, to 
j employ a sculptor to execute him in stone, — not omitting 
I his faithful dog, keg of liquor, and other appurtenances. 



362 APPENDIX. .J^'^^^y^'i.- 

"The famous Caius Gabriel Gibber (father to Colley 
Gibber, the Gomedian) was then in high repute, from the 
circumstance of his having executed the beautiful figures 
which originally were placed over the entrance Gate of 
Old Bethlem Hospital ; and the Statue in question, of th( 
Highland Bag-piper, remains an additional specimen of 
the merits of this great artist. 

" It was long after purchased by John, the great Duke 
of Argyle, and came from his Collection, at his demise, into 
the possession of the present proprietor." 



The little garden mentioned in the preceding extract 
was nearly opposite to Howland-street ; but about nine or 
ten years ago, a small shop, now occupied as a toy-shop, 
was built apon it, in front of the house distinguished as 
No. 178, Tottenham-Gourt Road. The Statue was removed 
and sold. 



THE END. 



LONDON : 

BEADBLTLT AND EVANS, PEINTERS, WHTTEFRfARS. 



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